Saturday, June 28, 2008--Chongqing (Continued)
Various Observations (Continued)
4. It's amazing how many fairly new (20-30 year old) buildings are abandoned here in China. They are in every city. Is it because of poor construction which has made staying in them unsafe? Is it because of over construction causing them to be abandoned for newer buildings?
5. Polution from auto exhausts creates such an unattractive situation for buildings here. Not long after they are built, buildings start to turn dirty. Their windows are dirty, and so are any other surfaces. It is all from polution from auto exhausts. It really makes what could be gleaming buildings look unattractive.
6. Chinese do not put diapers on their babies. Instead, they buy outfits that are slit from the waistband in the front to the back. Then babies are allowed to just do their thing! I was on a train in Beijing when a girl just started peeing. I've seen mother's encouraging babies to squat in an effort to potty train them. Today, I saw a mother putting newspapers under her baby in one of these outfits as a way of trying to train her.
I wasn't hungry for dinner. Instead, I went back to the place where I bought the yeast bun last night and had another. Then I just snacked on some peanuts in the room.
Sunday, June 29, 2008--Chongqing and Departure on Yangse River Cruise
I finished reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen today. It's a very good story--a typical novel that has two parallel stories going at one time. One part is about a man in a nursing home, and the other part is about when he was a young veteranarian traveling with the circus during the Depression years. I found the story rushed a little and became, therefore, a bit weak toward the end of the part about the circus years. But overall, I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 4. There are hilarious parts related to the nursing home experience, and the circus portion, like most circus stories, is fascinating.
I went to the Chongqing Planning Museum this morning. It is just down the street from my hotel, and I wanted to pass the morning before checking out around noon. Although the topic sounds strange for a museum, it was quite interesting. There is a huge hall about Congqing in general giving its development history; an exhibit showing graphs about it's progress in income, GDP, etc.; an absolutely HUGE model of the whole city; etc. Then there are small exhibit halls for each portion of the city to show it's development expectations through 2020. One reason I went was to learn more about the Grand Theater being built here. I had read that it is hoped that the building will "put Chongqing on the map" as the Sydney Opera House did for that city. I saw the progress of the construction across the river yesterday and could see it from the museum itself. Well, they had a model on display of how the building will look when finished. It is nice. I think its setting, on a tip of land where two rivers come together and across the river from "Old Chongqing," is wonderful and dramatic. It will have to be seen whether the design of the building combined with this setting will accomplish what they want. A Google search did not turn up any imagines of the model for some reason.
My hotel room has scales which I had not seen until this morning. They were the model kind with a clear plexiglass platform, so they didn't show up well against the carpeting where they were stored. Anyway, when I found them today, I weighed myself. I am down to 78 kg (171 1/2 lbs) now. The rate of loss has slowed for a couple of reasons. First, it is harder to lose weight after the first fat has gone. And second, my hotels have had breakfasts lately causing me to eat more calories than I do when there is no breakfast. Anyway, my present weight leaves me with 6-8 kg (13-17 lbs) to go before I reach the goal I want to attain before arriving back in San Antonio. With about 14 weeks left of travel, that means I only have to lose 1/2 kg (1 lb) per week. That should be possible.
Spending Update: While waiting around my room, I decided to determine my spending statistics for China so far. Through yesterday, I had been here 19 days and had spent a total of $628.33 (NOT including the advance payment for the cruise I will take starting today). That's an average of $37.81 per day which is less than I thought it would be since I have stayed at several nicer hotels along the way. Again through yesterday and not including the cruise cost, I have traveled 54 days since leaving Texas and have spent $2243.10 for a daily spending average of $41.54. Those expensive days in Japan are still keeping the daily average up!!
I will report for my cruise down the Yangtse (Yangsi?--I've seen both spellings in English) this afternoon at 15:30. (The link is to a boat that looks like the one I am booked on and should be similar to it.) I doubt that I will have access to the Internet during the 3 days of the cruise. But it may pull into ports in the evenings so we don't miss sights along the way. If it does, if we are allowed to disembarque, and if I can find a cyber cafe, I will be online and update the blog. If not, it may be 3-4 days before I get a chance to be online again.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Exploring Chongqing
Friday, June 27, 2008--Chongqing (Continued)
There are no bicycles here in Chongqing. I wonder if it is because of the hills or because of an ordinance? And speaking of ordinances, there is a no-honking one here that seems to help at the intersections. When vehicles can't honk to try to scare pedestrians out of the way, they seem to tend to go through more cautiously.
My hotel is in a better location than I expected it to be. The map at their website is deceptive, making it seem closer to the "tip" of Chongqing where the two rivers come together than it really is. That caused me a bit of a problem yesterday when I was trying to find it. But it has turned into an advantage. It is really near the line between the dock area (where the map made it seem to be) and the Central Business District. I can easily walk from the hotel to the center of town in about 10 minutes. Just a block away, I have found a cyber cafe. And just around the corner is a Carrefour store with everything I might need to buy. By being closer to the CBD instead of at the "tip" of the peninsula, it means also that I don't have to walk uphill to go anywhere; I'm already just about at the top of the hill.
Speaking of Carrefour, they must do business in more countries than any other retailer in the world (unless it is McDonalds or KFC). They seem to be on every continent (except for Antartica, I guess).
And speaking of KFC, I ate there last night. The only eating places I could find near my hotel seemed a bit dirty due to serving people living or working near the docks. Downtown just doesn't have restaurants other than ones in hotels and in food courts within shopping malls or department stores. (Food courts are hard to use here unless you speak Chinese, because you must decide what you want, find out the price, go to a central area to buy a ticket to cover the cost, then go back to the outlet to order your food.) I got so hungry looking for a place that I stopped at a street stand that had some good looking buns--toasted cruncy on the bottom with sesame seeds and cooked, but not browned, otherwise. I bought one and ate it while walking. It was fantastic! It tasted like a slightly sweet yeast roll. By the time I finished it, I wasn't very hungry and I was frustrated with trying to find a place. I had seen KFC, so I went back to there. I ordered a sandwich that looked like it was designed for the Chinese market, and it was. The chicken was not battered. It was cooked with some kind of sauce that was spicy and tasty. There was mayonnaise and slices of pepper also. It came with a small cup of vegetable salad (mosly corn) in mayonnaise and an unbelivably sweet drink of some kind. Guess I messed up the diet with that. But it was a nice change.
Saturday, June 28, 2008--Chongqing
The buffet breakfast had a better selection than the breakfasts I have been having. There were many Chinese offerings. I choose fried noodles, fried rice, a steamed green vegetable, boiled egg, steamed dumplings, watermelon, canteloupe, bread with butter and marmalade, and coffee. It will filling. My only complaint is that the sterno fires weren't really high enough to keep the food in the covered dishes warm enough.
I took the light rail line to the Three Gorges Museum today. Fortunately, the museum has far more than exhibits about the Three Gorges. There are rooms with old photos of Chongqing, caligraphy, art, ethnograpic displays, etc. I spent over 2 hours there enjoying myself.
As I sat in the park in front of the museum writing in my journal, I attracted the usual attention due to being lefthanded and writing in western script. Everyone crowded around and watched and commented. Then one of the guys wanted a photo with me before leaving. That's typical in places like China.
While sitting in the park, I also devised an idea that I have had in my head for a while. I remember thinking about it in South America, and that was at least 2-3 years ago. It's something I want to propose to an educational foundation as a way of improving education, assisting institutions throughout the world, and improving the experiences of tourists. When I get home, I will contact a couple of international education foundations to see if they have a specific form for submiting proposals. I am not interested in working again. But I would be willing to be on a supervisory board or to be an occasional consultant if a foundation wanted to pursue the idea.
Various topics related to China:
1. In the north, I noticed that every time I wore my shorts people would stare at my legs. I finally figured out that it was probably because men in the north of China tend NOT to have any hair on the legs. Now that I am in the south, most men seem to have at least some hair, and I don't notice as many people staring downward when they approach me.
2. There are public toilets everywhere in China. They are free, but there is an attendant who keeps them clean and sells packets of tissue paper for people who need them. There are so many of them because the local districts grew up without sewage lines and, therefore, without private toilets. The cities have built these public toilets to serve the neighborhoods. It makes it easy to find a toilet whenever one is needed. The major streets have signs with both English and Chinese lettering indicating alleys to take to get to them. I have surprised the local men when entering one. They don't expect westerners. And part of the reason they notice is that there are no doors on the stalls. Going to the toilet here is a very communal experience!
3. There are still lackeys here in Chongqing around the port area which is built on a steep hill. They walk around carrying a long piece of bamboo and a couple of ropes. Anyone with any load to bear can hire them. They will put the ropes around the load and put the board over their shoulders and head up or down the hill. The streets are too narrow and too steep in this area to make the use of vehicles convenient, so I guess there will be men doing lackey work here for years to come.
There are no bicycles here in Chongqing. I wonder if it is because of the hills or because of an ordinance? And speaking of ordinances, there is a no-honking one here that seems to help at the intersections. When vehicles can't honk to try to scare pedestrians out of the way, they seem to tend to go through more cautiously.
My hotel is in a better location than I expected it to be. The map at their website is deceptive, making it seem closer to the "tip" of Chongqing where the two rivers come together than it really is. That caused me a bit of a problem yesterday when I was trying to find it. But it has turned into an advantage. It is really near the line between the dock area (where the map made it seem to be) and the Central Business District. I can easily walk from the hotel to the center of town in about 10 minutes. Just a block away, I have found a cyber cafe. And just around the corner is a Carrefour store with everything I might need to buy. By being closer to the CBD instead of at the "tip" of the peninsula, it means also that I don't have to walk uphill to go anywhere; I'm already just about at the top of the hill.
Speaking of Carrefour, they must do business in more countries than any other retailer in the world (unless it is McDonalds or KFC). They seem to be on every continent (except for Antartica, I guess).
And speaking of KFC, I ate there last night. The only eating places I could find near my hotel seemed a bit dirty due to serving people living or working near the docks. Downtown just doesn't have restaurants other than ones in hotels and in food courts within shopping malls or department stores. (Food courts are hard to use here unless you speak Chinese, because you must decide what you want, find out the price, go to a central area to buy a ticket to cover the cost, then go back to the outlet to order your food.) I got so hungry looking for a place that I stopped at a street stand that had some good looking buns--toasted cruncy on the bottom with sesame seeds and cooked, but not browned, otherwise. I bought one and ate it while walking. It was fantastic! It tasted like a slightly sweet yeast roll. By the time I finished it, I wasn't very hungry and I was frustrated with trying to find a place. I had seen KFC, so I went back to there. I ordered a sandwich that looked like it was designed for the Chinese market, and it was. The chicken was not battered. It was cooked with some kind of sauce that was spicy and tasty. There was mayonnaise and slices of pepper also. It came with a small cup of vegetable salad (mosly corn) in mayonnaise and an unbelivably sweet drink of some kind. Guess I messed up the diet with that. But it was a nice change.
Saturday, June 28, 2008--Chongqing
The buffet breakfast had a better selection than the breakfasts I have been having. There were many Chinese offerings. I choose fried noodles, fried rice, a steamed green vegetable, boiled egg, steamed dumplings, watermelon, canteloupe, bread with butter and marmalade, and coffee. It will filling. My only complaint is that the sterno fires weren't really high enough to keep the food in the covered dishes warm enough.
I took the light rail line to the Three Gorges Museum today. Fortunately, the museum has far more than exhibits about the Three Gorges. There are rooms with old photos of Chongqing, caligraphy, art, ethnograpic displays, etc. I spent over 2 hours there enjoying myself.
As I sat in the park in front of the museum writing in my journal, I attracted the usual attention due to being lefthanded and writing in western script. Everyone crowded around and watched and commented. Then one of the guys wanted a photo with me before leaving. That's typical in places like China.
While sitting in the park, I also devised an idea that I have had in my head for a while. I remember thinking about it in South America, and that was at least 2-3 years ago. It's something I want to propose to an educational foundation as a way of improving education, assisting institutions throughout the world, and improving the experiences of tourists. When I get home, I will contact a couple of international education foundations to see if they have a specific form for submiting proposals. I am not interested in working again. But I would be willing to be on a supervisory board or to be an occasional consultant if a foundation wanted to pursue the idea.
Various topics related to China:
1. In the north, I noticed that every time I wore my shorts people would stare at my legs. I finally figured out that it was probably because men in the north of China tend NOT to have any hair on the legs. Now that I am in the south, most men seem to have at least some hair, and I don't notice as many people staring downward when they approach me.
2. There are public toilets everywhere in China. They are free, but there is an attendant who keeps them clean and sells packets of tissue paper for people who need them. There are so many of them because the local districts grew up without sewage lines and, therefore, without private toilets. The cities have built these public toilets to serve the neighborhoods. It makes it easy to find a toilet whenever one is needed. The major streets have signs with both English and Chinese lettering indicating alleys to take to get to them. I have surprised the local men when entering one. They don't expect westerners. And part of the reason they notice is that there are no doors on the stalls. Going to the toilet here is a very communal experience!
3. There are still lackeys here in Chongqing around the port area which is built on a steep hill. They walk around carrying a long piece of bamboo and a couple of ropes. Anyone with any load to bear can hire them. They will put the ropes around the load and put the board over their shoulders and head up or down the hill. The streets are too narrow and too steep in this area to make the use of vehicles convenient, so I guess there will be men doing lackey work here for years to come.
Friday, June 27, 2008
No Photos from this Trip
Thursday, June 26, 2008--Leshan (Continued)
It is expensive for Chinese to be tourists in their own country. Admission prices are similar to those to similar places in the U.S. and Europe. In their everyday lives, Chinese pay only 1 yuan (about 15 cents U.S.) for a cross-town bus. They can have a meal of noodles for 5-6 yuan (75-90 cents U.S.). But if they want to take the short boat cruise to see the Buddha statue I saw today, they have to pay 50 yuan ($7.50!). If they want to actually go to the Buddha and climb the stairs down and up around it, they have to pay another 70 yuan ($10). Many of the entry fees I have paid to museums, temples, etc., have been in the 40-120 yuan range ($6-19). Yet almost all the tourists I see are Chinese. It must hurt to pay those prices.
I ate dumplings for dinner tonight. I passed a place that was very busy. The dumplings everyone was eating looked different from the ones I usually find. Their tops were frilly and puffy so that they looked like white carnation flowers. I ordered 10 and made my dinner out of that.
Well, there won't be any photos of my trip this year. My camera was stolen tonight. Someone zipped open my bag without my knowing it and took it. I think I know who it was--a family. The father holding a baby walked up to me and told the baby to say hello. I reached up (away from my bag) and let the baby hold my finger for a moment. There was a wife and a son about 12 years old who were beside/behind me. So I figure they did it. I had read in the guidebooks that children were being used as pickpockets in China. Losing the camera itself is no big deal. It was an old one that I planned to replace because it is slow to find space on the memory card for letting me take a photo, it has a very small viewing screen, it doesn't take moving action images, etc. I'm just glad I didn't replace it before this trip. The big loss is the 350 photos I had taken so far on my trip that were on the memory card. In a way, however, it is liberating. I have decided not to replace the camera at the present time. Photos of everywhere I go are on the Internet. So now I plan to just go everywhere and enjoy seeing what I see rather than thinking about trying to get good photos while there. I think I may enjoy traveling more without taking photos!!
In the past several years, there has been a Disaster of the Year while traveling. Last year, it was my suitcase being stolen. Two years ago, it was my leaving my shouder pack on the bus when I jumped off quickly (yet, retrieving it with only a few items missing). In Argentina a few years ago, it was having my pocket picked. Of course, the worst Disaster of the Year was four years ago when Arne had his stroke and dying. I hope this camera being stolen will be the end of it this year. I would like to have the rest of the trip go smoothly.
Friday, June 27, 2008--Leshan to Chongqing
I took a taxi to the bus station this morning. Taxis really are rather cheap in China. And they seem to always use the meter. The 10 km trip to the bus station cost me 10 yuan (about $1.40). I got to the station at 7:30, and there was a bus leaving at 8:00. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best of buses. It looked nice outside, but it was well worn inside.
The guidebook had said that there was an expressway between Leshan and Chongqing, but that's not true. There is a 4-lane roadway most of the way, but it isn't an expressway. It goes through towns. And much of it is in bad shape.
A little boy sat beside me. He didn't like being by a foreigner, but he and his dad got on the bus when there were only two seats available. The father put the boy beside me and went two seats forward to seat himself. The boy was quiet and stayed as far away from me as possible as the bus bounced along. About an hour after they got on the bus, I noticed the boy lean forward and rest his arm on the handle at the back of the seat in front of him and then rest his head on his arm. A few minutes later, he threw up! What a mess. But because he was uncomfortable near me, he did it out in the aisle rather than between us. Fortunately, just a few minutes later we reached a normal rest stop. The people around me were making a big fuss about the smell, but I thought the food everyone had brought onto the bus was so overwhelming that I could hardly smell the puke. Anyway, I stepped out and around and left the bus with the others. While we were stopped, the lady conductor cleaned it all up. Before we departed, she moved me to another seat and put the father beside the boy.
My guidebook says that Chongqing is the place to splurge on a hotel because there are not many budget offerings. Well, I took them at their word. I'm in a 4-star hotel, the best that I have had on this trip. My room is on the 22nd floor with a view of the Yangsi River. The hotel was remodeled last year, so everything is nice and new. The bathrooms (toilet and shower compartments) have glass doors and glass walls out to the room. I can stand in my shower and look at the Yangsi while I bathe! The lights are movement sensitive, so all I have to do is walk into the bathroom and the light comes on. The TV remote control even has a designer cover for it that matches the tissue box, the tea box, the ice bucket, the services folder, etc. I am looking forward to their buffet breakfast. I hope it will be the best I have had so far!! Oh, for those who are wondering, the room is $38 per night from chinahotels.org. The posted rate is about $60 for my room.
Chongqing must be an official sister city to San Francisco. If not, it should be. Both are on peninsulas, both are built on hills, both have high rise buildings everywhere, both have frequent fog. It's sunny today, so I haven't seen the fog yet.
I made a decision to change my plans slightly today. I had intended just to take the one-day hydrofoil trip past the Three Gorges from here. I didn't want a cruise with all its side trips. I just wanted to see the scenery and figured doing it in one day would be best. But they have discontinued the hydrofoil service from here since the earthquake. It is necessary to take a bus 3-4 hours south of here and then take the hydrofoil. Also, the price of the hydrofoil has gone up to 450 yuan. So I have given in to tradition and will take the luxury cruise boat. I will have a private 1st class room. The trip will include about 4 side tours during stops. I will have to pay for meals onboard, though. I paid 1000 yuan for it. That will put me behind on my itinerary, but I had already figured I had at least 2 extra days that could be cut from other stops. I had thought, however, of using those for another stop higher in the mountains near Tibet. Now, I will have to see if it is possible or not to go there.
It is expensive for Chinese to be tourists in their own country. Admission prices are similar to those to similar places in the U.S. and Europe. In their everyday lives, Chinese pay only 1 yuan (about 15 cents U.S.) for a cross-town bus. They can have a meal of noodles for 5-6 yuan (75-90 cents U.S.). But if they want to take the short boat cruise to see the Buddha statue I saw today, they have to pay 50 yuan ($7.50!). If they want to actually go to the Buddha and climb the stairs down and up around it, they have to pay another 70 yuan ($10). Many of the entry fees I have paid to museums, temples, etc., have been in the 40-120 yuan range ($6-19). Yet almost all the tourists I see are Chinese. It must hurt to pay those prices.
I ate dumplings for dinner tonight. I passed a place that was very busy. The dumplings everyone was eating looked different from the ones I usually find. Their tops were frilly and puffy so that they looked like white carnation flowers. I ordered 10 and made my dinner out of that.
Well, there won't be any photos of my trip this year. My camera was stolen tonight. Someone zipped open my bag without my knowing it and took it. I think I know who it was--a family. The father holding a baby walked up to me and told the baby to say hello. I reached up (away from my bag) and let the baby hold my finger for a moment. There was a wife and a son about 12 years old who were beside/behind me. So I figure they did it. I had read in the guidebooks that children were being used as pickpockets in China. Losing the camera itself is no big deal. It was an old one that I planned to replace because it is slow to find space on the memory card for letting me take a photo, it has a very small viewing screen, it doesn't take moving action images, etc. I'm just glad I didn't replace it before this trip. The big loss is the 350 photos I had taken so far on my trip that were on the memory card. In a way, however, it is liberating. I have decided not to replace the camera at the present time. Photos of everywhere I go are on the Internet. So now I plan to just go everywhere and enjoy seeing what I see rather than thinking about trying to get good photos while there. I think I may enjoy traveling more without taking photos!!
In the past several years, there has been a Disaster of the Year while traveling. Last year, it was my suitcase being stolen. Two years ago, it was my leaving my shouder pack on the bus when I jumped off quickly (yet, retrieving it with only a few items missing). In Argentina a few years ago, it was having my pocket picked. Of course, the worst Disaster of the Year was four years ago when Arne had his stroke and dying. I hope this camera being stolen will be the end of it this year. I would like to have the rest of the trip go smoothly.
Friday, June 27, 2008--Leshan to Chongqing
I took a taxi to the bus station this morning. Taxis really are rather cheap in China. And they seem to always use the meter. The 10 km trip to the bus station cost me 10 yuan (about $1.40). I got to the station at 7:30, and there was a bus leaving at 8:00. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best of buses. It looked nice outside, but it was well worn inside.
The guidebook had said that there was an expressway between Leshan and Chongqing, but that's not true. There is a 4-lane roadway most of the way, but it isn't an expressway. It goes through towns. And much of it is in bad shape.
A little boy sat beside me. He didn't like being by a foreigner, but he and his dad got on the bus when there were only two seats available. The father put the boy beside me and went two seats forward to seat himself. The boy was quiet and stayed as far away from me as possible as the bus bounced along. About an hour after they got on the bus, I noticed the boy lean forward and rest his arm on the handle at the back of the seat in front of him and then rest his head on his arm. A few minutes later, he threw up! What a mess. But because he was uncomfortable near me, he did it out in the aisle rather than between us. Fortunately, just a few minutes later we reached a normal rest stop. The people around me were making a big fuss about the smell, but I thought the food everyone had brought onto the bus was so overwhelming that I could hardly smell the puke. Anyway, I stepped out and around and left the bus with the others. While we were stopped, the lady conductor cleaned it all up. Before we departed, she moved me to another seat and put the father beside the boy.
My guidebook says that Chongqing is the place to splurge on a hotel because there are not many budget offerings. Well, I took them at their word. I'm in a 4-star hotel, the best that I have had on this trip. My room is on the 22nd floor with a view of the Yangsi River. The hotel was remodeled last year, so everything is nice and new. The bathrooms (toilet and shower compartments) have glass doors and glass walls out to the room. I can stand in my shower and look at the Yangsi while I bathe! The lights are movement sensitive, so all I have to do is walk into the bathroom and the light comes on. The TV remote control even has a designer cover for it that matches the tissue box, the tea box, the ice bucket, the services folder, etc. I am looking forward to their buffet breakfast. I hope it will be the best I have had so far!! Oh, for those who are wondering, the room is $38 per night from chinahotels.org. The posted rate is about $60 for my room.
Chongqing must be an official sister city to San Francisco. If not, it should be. Both are on peninsulas, both are built on hills, both have high rise buildings everywhere, both have frequent fog. It's sunny today, so I haven't seen the fog yet.
I made a decision to change my plans slightly today. I had intended just to take the one-day hydrofoil trip past the Three Gorges from here. I didn't want a cruise with all its side trips. I just wanted to see the scenery and figured doing it in one day would be best. But they have discontinued the hydrofoil service from here since the earthquake. It is necessary to take a bus 3-4 hours south of here and then take the hydrofoil. Also, the price of the hydrofoil has gone up to 450 yuan. So I have given in to tradition and will take the luxury cruise boat. I will have a private 1st class room. The trip will include about 4 side tours during stops. I will have to pay for meals onboard, though. I paid 1000 yuan for it. That will put me behind on my itinerary, but I had already figured I had at least 2 extra days that could be cut from other stops. I had thought, however, of using those for another stop higher in the mountains near Tibet. Now, I will have to see if it is possible or not to go there.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
World's Biggest Carved Buddha
Wednesday, June 25, 2008--Chendgu (Continued)
Language is sometimes a problem here. I am surprised how many Chinese now speak English and how many of them seem to speak it really well. But that group consists strictly of students and recent former students. Anyone else, and there tends to be a problem. I had two problems today:
1. When I returned to my room, the maid had not finished her work. She had taken one of the hand towels and had not replaced it. She was probably interrupted and forgot. But I am checking out tomorrow. Here, they check the rooms and have a price list to replace anything missing. I went downstairs to try to explain the towel situation. It just wasn't working. The lady at the desk finally called someone who supposedly speaks English, but I still wasn't sure she understood. Now I will worry tonight about their expecting me to pay for a towel I haven't taken.
2. Ordering food is consistently a problem. There are very few places with an English menu, because tourism just isn't big enough to support the need. I usually rely on printed picture menus or pointing to what someone else has. Tonight, I could not tell much from the pictures. And no one was eating anything that I could tell for sure what it was. I just opened my guidebook food pages and pointed to all the pork dishes listed in Chinese to see if they had any of them. They had one, so that is what I ordered.
The food was actually good. It was a huge platter. What I got was pork with vegetables and rice cakes. There was a nice sauce filled with small pieces of pork, lots of different kinds of vegetables, and pices of rice cakes. I managed to eat 90% of it even if it was so much food. But it wasn't a hot and spicy Sichuan dish; my missed my opportunity for that tonight.
Thursday, June 26, 2008--Chengdu to Leshan
I was up early today. I entered for breakfast just when they opened. And it was the best breakfast I have had here in China. The past two days, they have brought a plate of food, but today there were enough people that they set out a buffet. It had everything they have been serving, but it also had more. There were scrambled eggs with tomatoes, a spicy pork dish with vegetables, cake, etc. Ummm. I had all that with the usual steamed meat-filled buns, boiled egg, banana-leaf wrapped rice cake (sticky dark brown mixture), and warm milk.
I walked to the bus station. It only took about 30 minutes. And I caught a bus for Leshan at 9:00. It was a plush bus that included a movie and free bottles of water. A young woman who spoke English very well sat across the aisle from me. She graduated from the university in Leshan and now has a job with Google. We visited for quite a while. Then she helped make sure I went the right direction when we got to town.
Leshan is known mainly for one thing: The world's largest Buddha statue carved into a mountainside. It wasn't until the Taliban blew up the two statues in Afghanistan. And even though one of those as been rebuilt, it is not original and is not carved. The one here is at the confluence of two rivers. It took 90 years to carve it. Some of its dimensions: 71 m (about 75 yards) high. Ears that are 7 m long (over 7 yards). A toe that is 8.5 meters (about 9 yards) long. My guidebook says, "You could picnic on the nail of his big toe."
I considered taking one of the local ferries that passes by the statue, but my guidebook didn't give enough information about catching them. Also, they didn't give the key words in Chinese spelling for me to show to people. So I went the expensive way--on the $7.50 tour boat that stays there for 10 minutes. Of course, they also try to push you to have professional photos made that you pay extra for! I got some good photos with my camera, I think.
It has sprinkled occasionally today and has been cloudy all day. But rain has never come. I will be up early again tomorrow to catch a bus to Chongqing. That's a 5-6 hour trip, so tomorrow will not be the best of days. But I have a reservation at a 4-star hotel for the next two nights. That should help.
Language is sometimes a problem here. I am surprised how many Chinese now speak English and how many of them seem to speak it really well. But that group consists strictly of students and recent former students. Anyone else, and there tends to be a problem. I had two problems today:
1. When I returned to my room, the maid had not finished her work. She had taken one of the hand towels and had not replaced it. She was probably interrupted and forgot. But I am checking out tomorrow. Here, they check the rooms and have a price list to replace anything missing. I went downstairs to try to explain the towel situation. It just wasn't working. The lady at the desk finally called someone who supposedly speaks English, but I still wasn't sure she understood. Now I will worry tonight about their expecting me to pay for a towel I haven't taken.
2. Ordering food is consistently a problem. There are very few places with an English menu, because tourism just isn't big enough to support the need. I usually rely on printed picture menus or pointing to what someone else has. Tonight, I could not tell much from the pictures. And no one was eating anything that I could tell for sure what it was. I just opened my guidebook food pages and pointed to all the pork dishes listed in Chinese to see if they had any of them. They had one, so that is what I ordered.
The food was actually good. It was a huge platter. What I got was pork with vegetables and rice cakes. There was a nice sauce filled with small pieces of pork, lots of different kinds of vegetables, and pices of rice cakes. I managed to eat 90% of it even if it was so much food. But it wasn't a hot and spicy Sichuan dish; my missed my opportunity for that tonight.
Thursday, June 26, 2008--Chengdu to Leshan
I was up early today. I entered for breakfast just when they opened. And it was the best breakfast I have had here in China. The past two days, they have brought a plate of food, but today there were enough people that they set out a buffet. It had everything they have been serving, but it also had more. There were scrambled eggs with tomatoes, a spicy pork dish with vegetables, cake, etc. Ummm. I had all that with the usual steamed meat-filled buns, boiled egg, banana-leaf wrapped rice cake (sticky dark brown mixture), and warm milk.
I walked to the bus station. It only took about 30 minutes. And I caught a bus for Leshan at 9:00. It was a plush bus that included a movie and free bottles of water. A young woman who spoke English very well sat across the aisle from me. She graduated from the university in Leshan and now has a job with Google. We visited for quite a while. Then she helped make sure I went the right direction when we got to town.
Leshan is known mainly for one thing: The world's largest Buddha statue carved into a mountainside. It wasn't until the Taliban blew up the two statues in Afghanistan. And even though one of those as been rebuilt, it is not original and is not carved. The one here is at the confluence of two rivers. It took 90 years to carve it. Some of its dimensions: 71 m (about 75 yards) high. Ears that are 7 m long (over 7 yards). A toe that is 8.5 meters (about 9 yards) long. My guidebook says, "You could picnic on the nail of his big toe."
I considered taking one of the local ferries that passes by the statue, but my guidebook didn't give enough information about catching them. Also, they didn't give the key words in Chinese spelling for me to show to people. So I went the expensive way--on the $7.50 tour boat that stays there for 10 minutes. Of course, they also try to push you to have professional photos made that you pay extra for! I got some good photos with my camera, I think.
It has sprinkled occasionally today and has been cloudy all day. But rain has never come. I will be up early again tomorrow to catch a bus to Chongqing. That's a 5-6 hour trip, so tomorrow will not be the best of days. But I have a reservation at a 4-star hotel for the next two nights. That should help.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
HOT! But It's Not Raining.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008--Chengdu (Continued)
I had SPICY food tonight. I went to a noodle shop. The bowl came with red peppers piled on top. The noodles themselves were rather bland. But the soup had really soaked up the pepper! My eyes were watering, and my forehead was sweating. But I wasn't the only one. The guy in front of me was wiping his forehead with a napkin when he finished. And a woman across the way was wiping both her forehead and her neck. I don't know how the locals do it, though. This place didn't serve tea the way many do. The locals were eating their noodles without anything to drink. I was regularly sipping on the beer that I ordered.
I had an interesting dessert by mistake. I pointed to the cooler and said I wanted a beer when I ordered at the counter. Well, a dessert showed up that is kept in the cooler. It is somewhat like flan. Maybe it is made with rice, though. Anyway, it was a gelatinous blob with a dark sweet syrup in the pan. It was probably good I got it. It was soothing after having that hot noodle soup!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008--Chengdu
I am tired today. I awoke sometime in the early morning from a dream in which I "found" a friend whom I haven't seen since the mid-1980s. He lost his job in Corpus then. He stayed around for a while, but eventually moved in with some friends who lived out in the country. After a while out there, he just never was heard from again. I have tried to locate him before, but his name is too common. Anyway, in the dream I was somewhere and saw him. I kept asking, "Is it you?!!" I slept some after that, but it was off and on.
I went to Wenshu Monastery this morning. It is one of the 4 major temples of Zen Buddhism and the most important temple in Chengdu. It was a nice complex with lots of atmosphere. They have a vegetarian restaurant and a tea house on site, and they were filled with people. There is a huge Tibetan Buddhist library. There are lots of nice shady areas to wander or sit. And the temple itself has monks chanting, incense burning, etc., to give it lots of atmosphere.
My guidebook had said that the alleys around the monastery were filled with "joss-stick vendors, foot callus removers, blind fortune tellers with bamboo spills, and tea houses." I went to explore and didn't find it. Instead, I found a totally new tourist area. I guess the old neighborhood has been torn down to build this Disneyfied area that looks old and has expensive souvenir shops and restaurants. Too bad.
I looked for a guesthouse that serves Danish food. I just wanted to see what was on the menu and thought I might have something light. However, it wasn't located where it was shown on the map in the guidebook. Therefore, I just headed back to People's Park where I visited yesterday. There are far more people there in the afternoon than I saw yesterday morning. I rested while listening to some performers. Then as I was ready to leave, I heard a band. I went to explore. It was a small band with a huge crowd around it. The band was playing a march, and the people were clapping along with the rhythym. I stayed for a while. Everyone coming to the park carries song sheets in their bags, and there are people selling songsheets, too. The other songs the band played were all ones from the songsheets, and the crowd sang along. It was somewhat like the effect of the German beer gardens, except no one was clasping arms and moving back and forth during the singing. It was fun to see.
I keep forgetting to write about the red lights here in Chengdu. They only have one round disk instead of three. That disk changes from green to yellow to red. I guess it is designed with LED lighting to be able to do that. It seems like it should be a cheaper way of providing signal lights that function properly.
I had SPICY food tonight. I went to a noodle shop. The bowl came with red peppers piled on top. The noodles themselves were rather bland. But the soup had really soaked up the pepper! My eyes were watering, and my forehead was sweating. But I wasn't the only one. The guy in front of me was wiping his forehead with a napkin when he finished. And a woman across the way was wiping both her forehead and her neck. I don't know how the locals do it, though. This place didn't serve tea the way many do. The locals were eating their noodles without anything to drink. I was regularly sipping on the beer that I ordered.
I had an interesting dessert by mistake. I pointed to the cooler and said I wanted a beer when I ordered at the counter. Well, a dessert showed up that is kept in the cooler. It is somewhat like flan. Maybe it is made with rice, though. Anyway, it was a gelatinous blob with a dark sweet syrup in the pan. It was probably good I got it. It was soothing after having that hot noodle soup!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008--Chengdu
I am tired today. I awoke sometime in the early morning from a dream in which I "found" a friend whom I haven't seen since the mid-1980s. He lost his job in Corpus then. He stayed around for a while, but eventually moved in with some friends who lived out in the country. After a while out there, he just never was heard from again. I have tried to locate him before, but his name is too common. Anyway, in the dream I was somewhere and saw him. I kept asking, "Is it you?!!" I slept some after that, but it was off and on.
I went to Wenshu Monastery this morning. It is one of the 4 major temples of Zen Buddhism and the most important temple in Chengdu. It was a nice complex with lots of atmosphere. They have a vegetarian restaurant and a tea house on site, and they were filled with people. There is a huge Tibetan Buddhist library. There are lots of nice shady areas to wander or sit. And the temple itself has monks chanting, incense burning, etc., to give it lots of atmosphere.
My guidebook had said that the alleys around the monastery were filled with "joss-stick vendors, foot callus removers, blind fortune tellers with bamboo spills, and tea houses." I went to explore and didn't find it. Instead, I found a totally new tourist area. I guess the old neighborhood has been torn down to build this Disneyfied area that looks old and has expensive souvenir shops and restaurants. Too bad.
I looked for a guesthouse that serves Danish food. I just wanted to see what was on the menu and thought I might have something light. However, it wasn't located where it was shown on the map in the guidebook. Therefore, I just headed back to People's Park where I visited yesterday. There are far more people there in the afternoon than I saw yesterday morning. I rested while listening to some performers. Then as I was ready to leave, I heard a band. I went to explore. It was a small band with a huge crowd around it. The band was playing a march, and the people were clapping along with the rhythym. I stayed for a while. Everyone coming to the park carries song sheets in their bags, and there are people selling songsheets, too. The other songs the band played were all ones from the songsheets, and the crowd sang along. It was somewhat like the effect of the German beer gardens, except no one was clasping arms and moving back and forth during the singing. It was fun to see.
I keep forgetting to write about the red lights here in Chengdu. They only have one round disk instead of three. That disk changes from green to yellow to red. I guess it is designed with LED lighting to be able to do that. It seems like it should be a cheaper way of providing signal lights that function properly.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
A Long Walk after the Long Train Ride
Monday, June 23, 2008--Changdu (Continued)
The neighborhood for 3-4 blocks in all directions around my hotel consists of many electronics stores, especially ones selling mobile phones. It is unbelievable how many big shops there are. How can there be so much business for all of them to survive? And sitting on the sidewalks throughout the area are individuals with 5-10 used mobile phones for sale.
I searched for a place to eat and had to go about 4 blocks from the hotel to get to an area with restaurants. I wanted spicy chicken with peanuts, a Sichuan specialty, so I asked until I found a restaurant that served it (by showing them the Chinese characters for that dish). It was a nice experience. And I was hungry since I only had a snack or two for breakfast very early this morning on the train. While searching for the restaurant, I found another cyber cafe and a supermarket. The former is even closer to my hotel (although I am back where I was yesterday since I was passing this way today). The latter is important because I can only find the big bottles of water (1.5 liters or more) at supermarkets, and supermarkets are not easy to find in China.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008--Chengdu
Chengdu has been rated as the second most livable city in China. It is nice. I may even like it better than Xi'an. What what is wonderful is that they have people stationed at each corner of major intersections to try to control traffic and teach them to go only when they have a green light. Bicyclists and pedestrians get to go in the same direction together, but those going other directions have to wait. And cars turning have to wait for pedestrians. Maybe Chengdu is trying to move up to the Number 1 spot on that livable city list!!!
I forgot to mention yesterday that in the city where I saw the tents for earthquake refuges in the streets, there was also an area near the train tracks that temporary housing was being built. It's with then walls (some modern material that is probably rather tight in terms of insulation) and definitely temprary, but it will be better than tents, espeically when the winter weather comes in a few months. What reminded me of it is that there was a report on the news last night about this project I had just seen that morning.
I made a big outing walking today. Based on my map and its scale, I guess I have walked 11 km (almost 7 miles) today. I started by going to the center of town where there is a big square with a statue of Mao. From there, I went to People's Park. It is a wonderful park in the center of town that has been designed to maximize the use of every bit of space (the way amusement parks pack a lot into a little bit of area). There were lots of trees providing shade. And there were restaurants and tea rooms within the park for people to relax and snack. Even though it is a weekday, many people were there. Most were elderly, but there was a mixture of others of all ages, too. Many were participating in activities: singing, exercising, playing board or card games, playing with their grandchildren, strolling, having tea, etc.
From People's Park, I headed southwest to the area around Wuhou Temple. I wandered through a new "old" area of town for tourists. It is a shopping/snacking street called Jinli Lu that is made to look like Old Sichuan. I skipped the temple since I am tired of temples anyway and couldn't imagine what would make this one worth almost $10 to enter it. I wandered into a nearby university campus and explored. It is the campus of Chengdu Sports University and had so many wonderful athletic facilities. They even had a nice, huge sculpture on campus dedicated to people playing polo which I guess is one of the majors there.
I wanted to head to the southeastern side of town from there, so I took a shortcut street that was shown on my map. Within a couple of blocks, I noticed that the signs had another language, in addition to Chinese, on them. Then I saw a woman in a strange outfit. Finally, I started seeing monks. It is a Tibetan immigrant area of town. There were shops selling Tibetan souvenirs and there were Tibetan restaurants.
I passed Peter's Tex-Mex restaurant and wondered what the food might be like. Unfortunately, nothing written on their chalkboard outside was Tex-Mex, so there was no way to judge what they might serve. Right past it, I entered the campus of Sichuan University. It is a HUGE campus with a nice atmosphere to it. I wandered and looked until I came out at the river on the other side of the campus.
By then, I was tired, so I followed the river back toward town. It was nicely landscaped with a narrow park along its side. There were some sidewalk bars along the way. But much of the area was filled with people who lived in nearby apartments and had come across to relax with their friends while playing table games, cards, etc. Back in town, I walked through the pedestrian-only shopping district and returned to the cyber cafe where I was yesterday. Whew! I am tired.
The neighborhood for 3-4 blocks in all directions around my hotel consists of many electronics stores, especially ones selling mobile phones. It is unbelievable how many big shops there are. How can there be so much business for all of them to survive? And sitting on the sidewalks throughout the area are individuals with 5-10 used mobile phones for sale.
I searched for a place to eat and had to go about 4 blocks from the hotel to get to an area with restaurants. I wanted spicy chicken with peanuts, a Sichuan specialty, so I asked until I found a restaurant that served it (by showing them the Chinese characters for that dish). It was a nice experience. And I was hungry since I only had a snack or two for breakfast very early this morning on the train. While searching for the restaurant, I found another cyber cafe and a supermarket. The former is even closer to my hotel (although I am back where I was yesterday since I was passing this way today). The latter is important because I can only find the big bottles of water (1.5 liters or more) at supermarkets, and supermarkets are not easy to find in China.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008--Chengdu
Chengdu has been rated as the second most livable city in China. It is nice. I may even like it better than Xi'an. What what is wonderful is that they have people stationed at each corner of major intersections to try to control traffic and teach them to go only when they have a green light. Bicyclists and pedestrians get to go in the same direction together, but those going other directions have to wait. And cars turning have to wait for pedestrians. Maybe Chengdu is trying to move up to the Number 1 spot on that livable city list!!!
I forgot to mention yesterday that in the city where I saw the tents for earthquake refuges in the streets, there was also an area near the train tracks that temporary housing was being built. It's with then walls (some modern material that is probably rather tight in terms of insulation) and definitely temprary, but it will be better than tents, espeically when the winter weather comes in a few months. What reminded me of it is that there was a report on the news last night about this project I had just seen that morning.
I made a big outing walking today. Based on my map and its scale, I guess I have walked 11 km (almost 7 miles) today. I started by going to the center of town where there is a big square with a statue of Mao. From there, I went to People's Park. It is a wonderful park in the center of town that has been designed to maximize the use of every bit of space (the way amusement parks pack a lot into a little bit of area). There were lots of trees providing shade. And there were restaurants and tea rooms within the park for people to relax and snack. Even though it is a weekday, many people were there. Most were elderly, but there was a mixture of others of all ages, too. Many were participating in activities: singing, exercising, playing board or card games, playing with their grandchildren, strolling, having tea, etc.
From People's Park, I headed southwest to the area around Wuhou Temple. I wandered through a new "old" area of town for tourists. It is a shopping/snacking street called Jinli Lu that is made to look like Old Sichuan. I skipped the temple since I am tired of temples anyway and couldn't imagine what would make this one worth almost $10 to enter it. I wandered into a nearby university campus and explored. It is the campus of Chengdu Sports University and had so many wonderful athletic facilities. They even had a nice, huge sculpture on campus dedicated to people playing polo which I guess is one of the majors there.
I wanted to head to the southeastern side of town from there, so I took a shortcut street that was shown on my map. Within a couple of blocks, I noticed that the signs had another language, in addition to Chinese, on them. Then I saw a woman in a strange outfit. Finally, I started seeing monks. It is a Tibetan immigrant area of town. There were shops selling Tibetan souvenirs and there were Tibetan restaurants.
I passed Peter's Tex-Mex restaurant and wondered what the food might be like. Unfortunately, nothing written on their chalkboard outside was Tex-Mex, so there was no way to judge what they might serve. Right past it, I entered the campus of Sichuan University. It is a HUGE campus with a nice atmosphere to it. I wandered and looked until I came out at the river on the other side of the campus.
By then, I was tired, so I followed the river back toward town. It was nicely landscaped with a narrow park along its side. There were some sidewalk bars along the way. But much of the area was filled with people who lived in nearby apartments and had come across to relax with their friends while playing table games, cards, etc. Back in town, I walked through the pedestrian-only shopping district and returned to the cyber cafe where I was yesterday. Whew! I am tired.
Monday, June 23, 2008
A Long Train Ride
Sunday, June 22, 2008--Xi'an and Overnight Train (Continued)
What a mess taking a train is in China. I arrived at the station two hours before my train, and all the seats in the waiting room were already occupied. I moved into the aisle between the seats and stood in line behind the ones who had arrived just before me. As time passed, more people arrived and got in line. Each pushed a little bit although no gates were open. By the last 30 minutes before the gates opened, we were standing waiting with no room to maneuver. Then when the gates opened about 35 minutes before our train was to depart, the pushing REALLY began. Taking the bus is so much easier. A bus is there and one immediately takes an available seat and waits either for the bus to fill or for the departure time to arrive. I will take as many buses as possible during the rest of my visit and only take trains when absolutely necessary.
The occupants of my sleeper compartment were already on the train when I got to the car. They must have been in line ahead of me. They were all young people who had come to Xi'an on a shopping expedition. They were really sweet, nice young people. They all live in smaller cities in Sichuan. None of them spoke English, but we managed to communicate. It was obvious that they were trying to watch out for me, too. They were really concerned when I didn't want to go to the dining car for dinner, but I had already eaten a snack and didn't want more calories.
One note: China has many nuclear power plants. I have seen at least 12 of them so far. Many have 4-5 cooling towers making them massive plants. The scary part is that they are located just near the cities. We passed one with 4 cooling towers in the suburbs of Xi'an as the train pulled out this evening. What a potential disaster there could be if something went wrong. Xi'an is a city orf 14,000,000 people!
We passed a troup train going north just before dark. They had vehicles and other materials on flatbed cars. I guess they have been south working on earthquake relief efforts and are headed home now.
Monday, June 23, 2008--Overnight Train and Chengdu
The young people in my compartment are so funny. Two of the guys are real jokesters and have smiles on their faces all the time. Neither of them is very attractive, but I knew I flattered one of them when I told him his face looks very much like that of Yao Ming, the basketball player (which it does). The other has hair about 10 cm (4 inches) long that is uncontrolable; it just swirls around his cowlick sticking up in the air at different angles. The two of them and the two girls are so happy with their purchases--sunglasses, electronics, fingerless driving gloves, hats, bracelets, etc. They insisted on my sharing their breakfast with them. First, I took a bun which was a little sweet and tasted fine. Then they opened a package of something white in a red oily sauce. I looked, and it looked a bit like shrimp tails (with the little hooked extension on the end). When they insisted, I took one. But it wasn't shrimp tails. It was chicken feet. Yuck. It was all gristle with little to knaw. I managed to get rid of it and to decline any others.
We passed through some areas with earthquake damage as we came to Chengdu. The quake hit to the north and norhtwest of here, but most of the damage was to the northwest. However, there were some collapsed roofs and other evidence in some of the towns we passed as the train came in from the north. And one town had tents everywhere--even in the main streets. I don't know if they were for locally-displaced people or if they were for refugees coming from villages to the northwest.
I have also seen a few tents here in Chengdu. But the one place I have seen them so far doesn't have many. And one of those had been taken down and was being folded up as I walked by. The government is starting to open up the villages for the people to return, so I figure the people from that tent are headed back home.
I had trouble finding an internet cafe again. The one marked in my guidebook didn't seem to exist where they said it should. I went into a local neighborhood not far from my hotel and started asking. Unfortunately, there are many electronic shops in this neighborhood, so they at first thought I wanted to BUY a computer. Anyway, I finally got directed to this one. It is only about 4 blocks from my hotel, I think.
Speaking of the hotel, I got another good bargain. I am paying only 173 yuan per night, and the posted rate for my room is 468 yuan!! Wish I had someone here with me; I get two breakfasts at my rate. The room is contemporary. It's more like something designed by Philip Starke than the hotels where I have been staying. For instance, the bathroom has bright green glass countertops and basin bowl and bright orange towels. The room even has a little sitting area with modern chairs and facilities for me to make my tea (which all hotel rooms here in China seem to have).
Now, I need to go find a place to have Sichuan food. It is known for its spiciness, so I am looking forward to something good tonight!
What a mess taking a train is in China. I arrived at the station two hours before my train, and all the seats in the waiting room were already occupied. I moved into the aisle between the seats and stood in line behind the ones who had arrived just before me. As time passed, more people arrived and got in line. Each pushed a little bit although no gates were open. By the last 30 minutes before the gates opened, we were standing waiting with no room to maneuver. Then when the gates opened about 35 minutes before our train was to depart, the pushing REALLY began. Taking the bus is so much easier. A bus is there and one immediately takes an available seat and waits either for the bus to fill or for the departure time to arrive. I will take as many buses as possible during the rest of my visit and only take trains when absolutely necessary.
The occupants of my sleeper compartment were already on the train when I got to the car. They must have been in line ahead of me. They were all young people who had come to Xi'an on a shopping expedition. They were really sweet, nice young people. They all live in smaller cities in Sichuan. None of them spoke English, but we managed to communicate. It was obvious that they were trying to watch out for me, too. They were really concerned when I didn't want to go to the dining car for dinner, but I had already eaten a snack and didn't want more calories.
One note: China has many nuclear power plants. I have seen at least 12 of them so far. Many have 4-5 cooling towers making them massive plants. The scary part is that they are located just near the cities. We passed one with 4 cooling towers in the suburbs of Xi'an as the train pulled out this evening. What a potential disaster there could be if something went wrong. Xi'an is a city orf 14,000,000 people!
We passed a troup train going north just before dark. They had vehicles and other materials on flatbed cars. I guess they have been south working on earthquake relief efforts and are headed home now.
Monday, June 23, 2008--Overnight Train and Chengdu
The young people in my compartment are so funny. Two of the guys are real jokesters and have smiles on their faces all the time. Neither of them is very attractive, but I knew I flattered one of them when I told him his face looks very much like that of Yao Ming, the basketball player (which it does). The other has hair about 10 cm (4 inches) long that is uncontrolable; it just swirls around his cowlick sticking up in the air at different angles. The two of them and the two girls are so happy with their purchases--sunglasses, electronics, fingerless driving gloves, hats, bracelets, etc. They insisted on my sharing their breakfast with them. First, I took a bun which was a little sweet and tasted fine. Then they opened a package of something white in a red oily sauce. I looked, and it looked a bit like shrimp tails (with the little hooked extension on the end). When they insisted, I took one. But it wasn't shrimp tails. It was chicken feet. Yuck. It was all gristle with little to knaw. I managed to get rid of it and to decline any others.
We passed through some areas with earthquake damage as we came to Chengdu. The quake hit to the north and norhtwest of here, but most of the damage was to the northwest. However, there were some collapsed roofs and other evidence in some of the towns we passed as the train came in from the north. And one town had tents everywhere--even in the main streets. I don't know if they were for locally-displaced people or if they were for refugees coming from villages to the northwest.
I have also seen a few tents here in Chengdu. But the one place I have seen them so far doesn't have many. And one of those had been taken down and was being folded up as I walked by. The government is starting to open up the villages for the people to return, so I figure the people from that tent are headed back home.
I had trouble finding an internet cafe again. The one marked in my guidebook didn't seem to exist where they said it should. I went into a local neighborhood not far from my hotel and started asking. Unfortunately, there are many electronic shops in this neighborhood, so they at first thought I wanted to BUY a computer. Anyway, I finally got directed to this one. It is only about 4 blocks from my hotel, I think.
Speaking of the hotel, I got another good bargain. I am paying only 173 yuan per night, and the posted rate for my room is 468 yuan!! Wish I had someone here with me; I get two breakfasts at my rate. The room is contemporary. It's more like something designed by Philip Starke than the hotels where I have been staying. For instance, the bathroom has bright green glass countertops and basin bowl and bright orange towels. The room even has a little sitting area with modern chairs and facilities for me to make my tea (which all hotel rooms here in China seem to have).
Now, I need to go find a place to have Sichuan food. It is known for its spiciness, so I am looking forward to something good tonight!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Overnight Train from Xi'an to Chengdu
Saturday, June 21, 2008--Xi'an (Continued)
I went to another noodle house in my neighborhood tonight. It was cleaner and a little fancier looking than the one where I ate last night. Unfortunately, the noodles were not as good. I don't think they were freshly made. And they were thin, round noodles rather than flat, wide ones. The meal was fine, though. There were 3 slices of meat (beef?) among the noodles along with spices. I added some soy sauce and some hot pepper oil to give more flavor to the soup. The meal cost slightly more than the one where I ate last night, too.
I am a little worried about leaving here. It seems from TV that it is raining almost everywhere in China except here. I hope it isn't raining in Chengdu when I get there Monday.
I finished reading The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve tonight. It really kept my attention with its story about Norwegian immigrants to a small island off the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire and a double murder that took place there in the late 1800s. I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 4.
Sunday, June 22, 2008--Xi'an (Leaving on Overnight Train)
Well, it is raining here today, too. I guess it is now raining everywhere in China. It has been steady--not light, but not heavy, either. There was a brief pause around noon when I checked out of the hotel and walked to the cyber cafe, but it was starting again when I arrived here. I am hoping that it will have stopped again by the time I leave. I will pick up my luggage around 15:00 and head for the train station for my 17:20 train that will go through the mountains to Chengdu on an 18-hour trip.
While staying in the room this morning, I wrote a brief story. I think it may be a good one. I wrote it about a friend of mine in Copenhagen and something that happened when she visited the U.S. in 1986 and later after she returned home. I might contact one of the women's magazines in Denmark to see if it would interest them, since, in addition to the story, there is a recipe included. I just did it for fun. I am not trying to find a way to make money.
I am frustrated here at the cyber cafe. I got an e-mail from Wes saying he had made arrangements for us to meet next May in Vancouver for a vacation together. I went online to check the schedules adjustments I would need to make and ran into problems. First, the United Airlines website would not load. That may be purposeful on the part of the Chinese government. If so, curses to them! But then I went to the Star Alliance website, and some programmer has messed up their schedule planner. It only allows people to search for flights in 2000 and 2001! Then it says no flights can be found due to the date being prior to today. I even went to the trouble of downloading their schedule to this computer only to find it has the same problem!!! Then I tried to write to the Star Alliance to tell them the problem they have, and the amount of space they allow for a complaint is so limited I couldn't even word what the problem was precisely. Curses on them, too, for not being on top of things and not seeming to care!!! What makes it worse is that I never know if I will find a cyber cafe in any given city. My guidebook only shows one in Chengdu, so I hope it is still in business and not closed down like the one that was listed here was when I went to it.
Oops, it must be raining hard outside. A man just closed the window. Why else would he do so? Yuck!
I went to another noodle house in my neighborhood tonight. It was cleaner and a little fancier looking than the one where I ate last night. Unfortunately, the noodles were not as good. I don't think they were freshly made. And they were thin, round noodles rather than flat, wide ones. The meal was fine, though. There were 3 slices of meat (beef?) among the noodles along with spices. I added some soy sauce and some hot pepper oil to give more flavor to the soup. The meal cost slightly more than the one where I ate last night, too.
I am a little worried about leaving here. It seems from TV that it is raining almost everywhere in China except here. I hope it isn't raining in Chengdu when I get there Monday.
I finished reading The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve tonight. It really kept my attention with its story about Norwegian immigrants to a small island off the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire and a double murder that took place there in the late 1800s. I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 4.
Sunday, June 22, 2008--Xi'an (Leaving on Overnight Train)
Well, it is raining here today, too. I guess it is now raining everywhere in China. It has been steady--not light, but not heavy, either. There was a brief pause around noon when I checked out of the hotel and walked to the cyber cafe, but it was starting again when I arrived here. I am hoping that it will have stopped again by the time I leave. I will pick up my luggage around 15:00 and head for the train station for my 17:20 train that will go through the mountains to Chengdu on an 18-hour trip.
While staying in the room this morning, I wrote a brief story. I think it may be a good one. I wrote it about a friend of mine in Copenhagen and something that happened when she visited the U.S. in 1986 and later after she returned home. I might contact one of the women's magazines in Denmark to see if it would interest them, since, in addition to the story, there is a recipe included. I just did it for fun. I am not trying to find a way to make money.
I am frustrated here at the cyber cafe. I got an e-mail from Wes saying he had made arrangements for us to meet next May in Vancouver for a vacation together. I went online to check the schedules adjustments I would need to make and ran into problems. First, the United Airlines website would not load. That may be purposeful on the part of the Chinese government. If so, curses to them! But then I went to the Star Alliance website, and some programmer has messed up their schedule planner. It only allows people to search for flights in 2000 and 2001! Then it says no flights can be found due to the date being prior to today. I even went to the trouble of downloading their schedule to this computer only to find it has the same problem!!! Then I tried to write to the Star Alliance to tell them the problem they have, and the amount of space they allow for a complaint is so limited I couldn't even word what the problem was precisely. Curses on them, too, for not being on top of things and not seeming to care!!! What makes it worse is that I never know if I will find a cyber cafe in any given city. My guidebook only shows one in Chengdu, so I hope it is still in business and not closed down like the one that was listed here was when I went to it.
Oops, it must be raining hard outside. A man just closed the window. Why else would he do so? Yuck!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Noodles and Tea
Friday, June 20, 2008--Xi'an (Continued)
I explored my neighborhood while waiting for time to eat. I just walked around the big block. I passed the Greenwich Village-type neighborhood of bar-restaurants, a shopping mall consisting only of top-name designer boutiques, and lots of small boutiques selling nice looking merchandise. There were also several restaurants serving various foods--Korean, pizza, western, etc. It's a very nice neighborhood. I did a good job of deciding on a hotel.
I ate noodles for dinner tonight. I had passed a local noodle place near my hotel earlier in the day and it was crowded. So I decided to return in the early evening before the crowds arrived to try it. I think that going to a noodle house in China must be lot like going to the local taco stand in Texas. Anyway, I arrived about 17:55. I was the only person there. I ordered from a picture menu in which I had only two choices. (As I was there, I could see that more and more toppings were coming out of the kitchen, so they had only completed the preparation of two of them before I got there.) Noodles are made fresh when ordered, so not long after I ordered, I could hear chopping indicating that they had finished the preparation of the dough and were chopping it into broad strips. I got a huge bowl with noodles and broth that included chives, cilantro, and bits of meat that I hoped and pretended were roast beef. It was very tasty and filling. In addition, they served me a bowl of green tea, and I ordered a beer which also came with a bowl to use for drinking. By the time I finished my noodles, every table in the place was full. My bill for everything came to less than $1.50 U.S.!
Met Steven, a young man who is a regional sales representative for a Chinese automobile company, and visited for a while. He was on his way to the train station for an out-of-town trip related to business. The cars his company manufactures sell for $1900-2300 U.S. That makes them very affordable to many people who could not buy cars from the major manufacturers. That is one of the reasons the number of cars in the world is increasing greatly and putting such pressure on the demand for oil. Tata also has a similar car it has started selling in India. Of course the worse thing about cars at this price level is that they won't include polution control devices. That means that global warming can only excellerate in the next few years as lots of these cars are sold.
Saturday, June 21, 2008--Xi'an
I had a bit of a disaster this morning. I had taken off my eyeglasses and set them on the bed as I wrote into my journal. Then as I shifted myself to put the journal back into my bag, I put one of my feet on the glasses and pressed down. A lens popped out and the frames bent. Fortunately, I was able to pop the lens back into the frame and then twist and bend the frame back into place without it breaking. I am planning to replace them when I get home in the fall anyway, but I need them while I am traveling!!!
I got confirmation that my hotel reservation has been made for Chengdu. I will take an overnight train there tomorrow, arriving on Monday and staying at the Peppermint Garden Hotel. I chose it mainly because of it's location, but it looks like a nice enough place to stay.
I spent the morning wandering today. I looked into a couple of the shopping malls just to see what they are like. In other countries, I went often to the malls because all the department stores in them had supermarkets in the basement where I could buy water and other supplies. But that's not the case here in China. In fact, I have had problems finding supplies for water here. Supermarkets are very difficult to find. I found one about 8 blocks from my hotel the other day that is operated in conjunction with Wal-Mart, and I bought two big bottles of water. The local stores tend to sell only small bottles. In the warm weather with all my walking, I generally drink at least one 1.5 liter bottle per day in addition to having tea and beer with my meal. But it is a hassle carrying 2-3 of those 1.5 liter bottles so far to get to my room. Anyway, without supermarkets, there really is nothing in the shopping malls that interests me.
I returned to the Muslim Quarter to see the Folk House Museum which I had marked as being of interest in my guidebook. It was such a good experience. A woman at the entrance went inside with me and gave a personal tour of the entire place. It is the last old, large residence left in the center of Xi'an. It is 400 years old and has 56 rooms open to the public. It has many original furnishings and is fancier than some of the places I visited in Pingyao. The entrance price of 20 yuan (about $3) also included a tea ceremony in which I was served 4 types of tea. Each was unique and delicious. The building was saved from destruction by the Xi'an Traditional Chinese Painting Institute, and they had some of their work on display. There were really some nice pieces. My guidebook had mentioned it as the place to buy good artwork rather than going to the tourist shops. I especially liked some of the pieces in modern Chinese style.
I explored my neighborhood while waiting for time to eat. I just walked around the big block. I passed the Greenwich Village-type neighborhood of bar-restaurants, a shopping mall consisting only of top-name designer boutiques, and lots of small boutiques selling nice looking merchandise. There were also several restaurants serving various foods--Korean, pizza, western, etc. It's a very nice neighborhood. I did a good job of deciding on a hotel.
I ate noodles for dinner tonight. I had passed a local noodle place near my hotel earlier in the day and it was crowded. So I decided to return in the early evening before the crowds arrived to try it. I think that going to a noodle house in China must be lot like going to the local taco stand in Texas. Anyway, I arrived about 17:55. I was the only person there. I ordered from a picture menu in which I had only two choices. (As I was there, I could see that more and more toppings were coming out of the kitchen, so they had only completed the preparation of two of them before I got there.) Noodles are made fresh when ordered, so not long after I ordered, I could hear chopping indicating that they had finished the preparation of the dough and were chopping it into broad strips. I got a huge bowl with noodles and broth that included chives, cilantro, and bits of meat that I hoped and pretended were roast beef. It was very tasty and filling. In addition, they served me a bowl of green tea, and I ordered a beer which also came with a bowl to use for drinking. By the time I finished my noodles, every table in the place was full. My bill for everything came to less than $1.50 U.S.!
Met Steven, a young man who is a regional sales representative for a Chinese automobile company, and visited for a while. He was on his way to the train station for an out-of-town trip related to business. The cars his company manufactures sell for $1900-2300 U.S. That makes them very affordable to many people who could not buy cars from the major manufacturers. That is one of the reasons the number of cars in the world is increasing greatly and putting such pressure on the demand for oil. Tata also has a similar car it has started selling in India. Of course the worse thing about cars at this price level is that they won't include polution control devices. That means that global warming can only excellerate in the next few years as lots of these cars are sold.
Saturday, June 21, 2008--Xi'an
I had a bit of a disaster this morning. I had taken off my eyeglasses and set them on the bed as I wrote into my journal. Then as I shifted myself to put the journal back into my bag, I put one of my feet on the glasses and pressed down. A lens popped out and the frames bent. Fortunately, I was able to pop the lens back into the frame and then twist and bend the frame back into place without it breaking. I am planning to replace them when I get home in the fall anyway, but I need them while I am traveling!!!
I got confirmation that my hotel reservation has been made for Chengdu. I will take an overnight train there tomorrow, arriving on Monday and staying at the Peppermint Garden Hotel. I chose it mainly because of it's location, but it looks like a nice enough place to stay.
I spent the morning wandering today. I looked into a couple of the shopping malls just to see what they are like. In other countries, I went often to the malls because all the department stores in them had supermarkets in the basement where I could buy water and other supplies. But that's not the case here in China. In fact, I have had problems finding supplies for water here. Supermarkets are very difficult to find. I found one about 8 blocks from my hotel the other day that is operated in conjunction with Wal-Mart, and I bought two big bottles of water. The local stores tend to sell only small bottles. In the warm weather with all my walking, I generally drink at least one 1.5 liter bottle per day in addition to having tea and beer with my meal. But it is a hassle carrying 2-3 of those 1.5 liter bottles so far to get to my room. Anyway, without supermarkets, there really is nothing in the shopping malls that interests me.
I returned to the Muslim Quarter to see the Folk House Museum which I had marked as being of interest in my guidebook. It was such a good experience. A woman at the entrance went inside with me and gave a personal tour of the entire place. It is the last old, large residence left in the center of Xi'an. It is 400 years old and has 56 rooms open to the public. It has many original furnishings and is fancier than some of the places I visited in Pingyao. The entrance price of 20 yuan (about $3) also included a tea ceremony in which I was served 4 types of tea. Each was unique and delicious. The building was saved from destruction by the Xi'an Traditional Chinese Painting Institute, and they had some of their work on display. There were really some nice pieces. My guidebook had mentioned it as the place to buy good artwork rather than going to the tourist shops. I especially liked some of the pieces in modern Chinese style.
Xi'an, China
Thursday, June 19, 2008--Xi'an
I checked out of the guesthouse after sleeping late and cleaning up. It wasn't a bad place to be. But because it is a Chinese-style courtyard complex, there are no exterior windows. All windows face into the walkways of the courtyard. I like to have light from outside coming into my room. Otherwise, it was clean, attractive, and with new furnishings since it is only one year old.
I walked about two blocks and checked into a business class hotel--3 stars. The room is a bit bigger and has a huge window letting light enter. The best way to describe it is that it seems like any major chain hotel room in the U.S. It also inclues a buffet breakfast each morning. (The guesthouse didn't, but it had free internet.) I got a good rate on the hotel room by using www.chinahotels.org. All hotels post their regular rates here, and the room I am paying 228 yuan per night to occupy would have rented for 450 yuan if I had just walked into the lobby to get a room.
I did as the guidebook suggested and went to get my outbound train ticket as my first outing in Xi'an. To get sleeper berths is difficult in China, so it means that tickets must be bought in advance by at least 3 days. Fortunately, the advance ticket purchase window for train tickets was only about 3 blocks from my hotel and there was only 1 person in line when I got there. He spoke English and helped make sure I got what I wanted. I got my ticket to depart here at 17:20 Sunday for Chengdu with an arrival 18 hours later! (I have decided to skip one of the places where I had planned to stop because it is out of the way. Neither a train nor a bus goes there directly. That's why I bought my ticket to go all the way through to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, the province where they had the earthquake a little over a month ago. I can backtrack to the village I wanted to visit if I decide I want to, but it is a 5 hour trip into the mountains from Chengdu, so I probably will just skip it. There are other villages ahead to visit.)
I explored the area near where I am staying after that. It's the center of Xi'an. I am about 3 blocks south of the Bell Tower. The area right around the guesthouse (and about 1 1/2 blocks from my present hotel is really nice. It is low-rise buildings along narrow, tree-lined streets that have bars and restaurants. It reminds me a bit of Greenwich Village in New York. And north of the Bell Tower is the Muslim Quarter, another area of narrow streets that is filled with activity--food vendors, shops, meat markets, etc. I like Xi'an. It feels like a sophisticated city--at least the part within the old city walls does. But the traffic situation is bad. There is no metro here yet, so everyone has to take buses and cars on the streets to get anywhere.
While walking through the Muslim Quarter, I bought a shawarma sandwhich and ate it. Then I bought some middle-eastern cookies soaked in honey and had them. Later in the evening, I returned to the same area and snacked again. I had a filled pancake made of two thin, flat disks of dough pressed together around the edges, filled with a fried egg and green vegetable mixture, and fried on a griddle. Then I bought some nut candies (peanut and cashew) at another stall and ate them while walking. I guess I went off my diet for the day.
Friday, June 20, 2008--Xi'an
The buffet breakfast at my hotel is much nicer than the breakfast I got at the hotel in Beijing. But it is still a Chinese breakfast. There were lots of pickled vegetables, there were some sprout items, there was a noodle dish and a rice dish, there were steamed buns and rolls, and there were slices of watermellon and two kinds of cookies. Oh, and there was steaming hot milk to drink. I had a little of almost everything. My favorite pickled dish from Beijing was a LOT more spicy here, but it was good. I was just surprised at first. Neither of the cookies was very sweet; in fact, one was more salty than it was sweet.
I decided today should be the day for my big outing here. I took a local bus to the train station where I caught an express bus for the site with the Terracotta Warriors exhibit outside of town. I'm sure almost everyone who is reading this already knows about the tomb of the emporer that was uncovered in the 1970s that had thousands of life-size warriors made out of clay to guard it. It is now one of the major tourist sites in the world. Everyone who comes to China usually stops here to see it. Of course, I had read so much and seen so many photos that nothing was really a surprise. But it is still a fascinating place. I was unaware that the tomb had been burned and that many of the warriors had been damaged. But what is whole is just fantastic. There was only one negative aspect to the visit: The signage pushes people to exit so they are forced to walk a gauntlet of vendors and shops instead of walking back through the pleasant park they have developed between the parking lot and the location of the exhibits. It somewhat spoils the experience. For me, it just made me resentful of the Chinese government for ruining the end of the experience.
After about two hours there, I caught the bus back into town and started searching for an Internet cafe. My guidebook only shows one such place within the walls of the city. When I got there, it was gone. I started asking people. One person indicated I should go to the end of the street and turn right. Then two students indicated I should keep going and it would be on my right. Sure enough, I eventually saw the symbol for "net" which is a 3-sided box (open on the bottom) with a slight inward curve at the bottom of the right side and two X's within the box. I started up the stairs. On the 3rd floor, I had to push back a heavy black curtain to continue. Then there it was. Why are all the internet cafes here hidden like they are prostitute dens? Anyway, it is not too far from my hotel, so I can come here regularly. It's good to know there is a place and that I don't have to search anymore.
I checked out of the guesthouse after sleeping late and cleaning up. It wasn't a bad place to be. But because it is a Chinese-style courtyard complex, there are no exterior windows. All windows face into the walkways of the courtyard. I like to have light from outside coming into my room. Otherwise, it was clean, attractive, and with new furnishings since it is only one year old.
I walked about two blocks and checked into a business class hotel--3 stars. The room is a bit bigger and has a huge window letting light enter. The best way to describe it is that it seems like any major chain hotel room in the U.S. It also inclues a buffet breakfast each morning. (The guesthouse didn't, but it had free internet.) I got a good rate on the hotel room by using www.chinahotels.org. All hotels post their regular rates here, and the room I am paying 228 yuan per night to occupy would have rented for 450 yuan if I had just walked into the lobby to get a room.
I did as the guidebook suggested and went to get my outbound train ticket as my first outing in Xi'an. To get sleeper berths is difficult in China, so it means that tickets must be bought in advance by at least 3 days. Fortunately, the advance ticket purchase window for train tickets was only about 3 blocks from my hotel and there was only 1 person in line when I got there. He spoke English and helped make sure I got what I wanted. I got my ticket to depart here at 17:20 Sunday for Chengdu with an arrival 18 hours later! (I have decided to skip one of the places where I had planned to stop because it is out of the way. Neither a train nor a bus goes there directly. That's why I bought my ticket to go all the way through to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, the province where they had the earthquake a little over a month ago. I can backtrack to the village I wanted to visit if I decide I want to, but it is a 5 hour trip into the mountains from Chengdu, so I probably will just skip it. There are other villages ahead to visit.)
I explored the area near where I am staying after that. It's the center of Xi'an. I am about 3 blocks south of the Bell Tower. The area right around the guesthouse (and about 1 1/2 blocks from my present hotel is really nice. It is low-rise buildings along narrow, tree-lined streets that have bars and restaurants. It reminds me a bit of Greenwich Village in New York. And north of the Bell Tower is the Muslim Quarter, another area of narrow streets that is filled with activity--food vendors, shops, meat markets, etc. I like Xi'an. It feels like a sophisticated city--at least the part within the old city walls does. But the traffic situation is bad. There is no metro here yet, so everyone has to take buses and cars on the streets to get anywhere.
While walking through the Muslim Quarter, I bought a shawarma sandwhich and ate it. Then I bought some middle-eastern cookies soaked in honey and had them. Later in the evening, I returned to the same area and snacked again. I had a filled pancake made of two thin, flat disks of dough pressed together around the edges, filled with a fried egg and green vegetable mixture, and fried on a griddle. Then I bought some nut candies (peanut and cashew) at another stall and ate them while walking. I guess I went off my diet for the day.
Friday, June 20, 2008--Xi'an
The buffet breakfast at my hotel is much nicer than the breakfast I got at the hotel in Beijing. But it is still a Chinese breakfast. There were lots of pickled vegetables, there were some sprout items, there was a noodle dish and a rice dish, there were steamed buns and rolls, and there were slices of watermellon and two kinds of cookies. Oh, and there was steaming hot milk to drink. I had a little of almost everything. My favorite pickled dish from Beijing was a LOT more spicy here, but it was good. I was just surprised at first. Neither of the cookies was very sweet; in fact, one was more salty than it was sweet.
I decided today should be the day for my big outing here. I took a local bus to the train station where I caught an express bus for the site with the Terracotta Warriors exhibit outside of town. I'm sure almost everyone who is reading this already knows about the tomb of the emporer that was uncovered in the 1970s that had thousands of life-size warriors made out of clay to guard it. It is now one of the major tourist sites in the world. Everyone who comes to China usually stops here to see it. Of course, I had read so much and seen so many photos that nothing was really a surprise. But it is still a fascinating place. I was unaware that the tomb had been burned and that many of the warriors had been damaged. But what is whole is just fantastic. There was only one negative aspect to the visit: The signage pushes people to exit so they are forced to walk a gauntlet of vendors and shops instead of walking back through the pleasant park they have developed between the parking lot and the location of the exhibits. It somewhat spoils the experience. For me, it just made me resentful of the Chinese government for ruining the end of the experience.
After about two hours there, I caught the bus back into town and started searching for an Internet cafe. My guidebook only shows one such place within the walls of the city. When I got there, it was gone. I started asking people. One person indicated I should go to the end of the street and turn right. Then two students indicated I should keep going and it would be on my right. Sure enough, I eventually saw the symbol for "net" which is a 3-sided box (open on the bottom) with a slight inward curve at the bottom of the right side and two X's within the box. I started up the stairs. On the 3rd floor, I had to push back a heavy black curtain to continue. Then there it was. Why are all the internet cafes here hidden like they are prostitute dens? Anyway, it is not too far from my hotel, so I can come here regularly. It's good to know there is a place and that I don't have to search anymore.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Experiences
Tuesday, June 17, 2008--Pingyao (Continued)
For dinner, I ate beef (a local specialty). (Note: I may have already written this, but my blog is banned in China now. Therefore, I cannot read my previous posts to see what I have written and what I haven't.) It was chunks of beef with vegetables. They said that the beef comes from Mongolia. I wonder if it is from those cows they have there with the long, wooly hair. Anyway, the beef was a bit salty. But it was tender and tasty.
My ticket I bought for touring the sites in town was also good for a theater performance in the evening. I am in Shanxi Province, and the story of the play is said to be the Shanxi Romeo and Juliet. The theater was very nice, and I was seated in the 3rd tier of tables (out of 7-8 tiers). A pre-performance included a male singer and another male playing a Chinese horn. They play was a musical with recorded music. It had a huge cast, and the sets, lighting, and costumes were wonderful. The title is Wild Jujubes in English. It was a strange performance in that it combined pantomime, dancing, singing, 30s musical-type group performances in patterns, acrobatics, etc. It was a bit disjointed in that there would be big production numbers that did not seem to be connected to the story, then it would continue the storyline for a while before there would be another big production number not connected. I would have loved to have seen the whole performance, but it was after 22:00, and they were just finishing Act III out of 5 acts! I knew I had to be up at 5:45, so I left having seen the prologue and those first 3 acts. I had a synopsis of the whole show, so I know what happened in the storyline after I left. It was a big strange that there was no intermission. That meant that people left their seats and returned occasionally. But even more strange was that people were holding up their phones and video recording the performance. All those screens between me and the actual performance were distracting. And even worse, people were taking mobile phone calls during the performance and talking coule be heard in the audience throughout it. It was fun to see the production, though.
Walking back to my guesthouse was magical that late in the evening. The streets were quiet. It was just me and all the old Chinese tiled-roof buildings. But what made it so special is that every house had lighted red silk lanterns hanging along the front of the building!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008--Pingyao to Dangjiocum to Xi'an
Well, my plans for today both worked out and didn't work out. I had no problem catching my train and getting a seat. And the people around me were nice and friendly (although there was little to no English spoken). But they smiled at me, helped me put my luggage in the overhead rack, shared sunflower seeds with me, etc.
We arrived in Hangcheng on time and caught a mini bus going to Dangjiacum, the village where I intended to visit and stay overnight in a homestay program. The mini-bus let me off at the road to Dangjiacum, and I walked the 2 km from the highway to the village. It didn't look like anything special as I approached. Then I came to an entrance where it is now necessary to pay a fee to walk through the streets. Well, I could see that some of the streets were unpaved and muddy from the recent rains. And nothing looked appealing from the gate, especially after the time I had just spent in Pingyao (where one can walk the streets for free). So I turned and walked back to the highway. I think Dangjiacum has decided it is better than it is worth to me as a tourist.
I was lucky to catch a mini-bus back to town just as I got to the highway. I had read my guidebook and knew that the hotels in town were as expensive as I had paid in Beijing. And it was still only about 14:45. I decided I should just continue traveling all the way to Xi'an. So I switched from the mini-bus to a Xi'an bus at the station, and left at 15:40. We arrived in Xi'an at 18:40, and I immediately caught a bus to the Bell Tower. Then I walked to a guesthouse that had been recommended to me by the one in Pingyao. It is only a year old and is in the syle of an old Chinese home. To get to my room, it is necessary to go past the second courtyard. The room is clean and nice with a big bed, a big TV, and a private bath. And the price is only 60% of what I would have had to pay in Hancheng for the night. So I am glad to be here. I can continue with my trip in a positive way.
I had dinner right across the street at a restaurant that was full of people. I sat on the 3rd floor and had a spicy vegetable dish (two kinds of mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, and other kinds of vegetables in a spicy sauce. It was good. And it was so hot that my lips were quivering at the end of the meal.
Now I will go to the room and think about the next few days. I have to decide what I will see and when. Also, I have to decide whether to stay at this guesthouse or to move to a nicer hotel for the rest of my stay. There are some good hotel bargains here in town, so I will check out some of them tomorrow morning.
For dinner, I ate beef (a local specialty). (Note: I may have already written this, but my blog is banned in China now. Therefore, I cannot read my previous posts to see what I have written and what I haven't.) It was chunks of beef with vegetables. They said that the beef comes from Mongolia. I wonder if it is from those cows they have there with the long, wooly hair. Anyway, the beef was a bit salty. But it was tender and tasty.
My ticket I bought for touring the sites in town was also good for a theater performance in the evening. I am in Shanxi Province, and the story of the play is said to be the Shanxi Romeo and Juliet. The theater was very nice, and I was seated in the 3rd tier of tables (out of 7-8 tiers). A pre-performance included a male singer and another male playing a Chinese horn. They play was a musical with recorded music. It had a huge cast, and the sets, lighting, and costumes were wonderful. The title is Wild Jujubes in English. It was a strange performance in that it combined pantomime, dancing, singing, 30s musical-type group performances in patterns, acrobatics, etc. It was a bit disjointed in that there would be big production numbers that did not seem to be connected to the story, then it would continue the storyline for a while before there would be another big production number not connected. I would have loved to have seen the whole performance, but it was after 22:00, and they were just finishing Act III out of 5 acts! I knew I had to be up at 5:45, so I left having seen the prologue and those first 3 acts. I had a synopsis of the whole show, so I know what happened in the storyline after I left. It was a big strange that there was no intermission. That meant that people left their seats and returned occasionally. But even more strange was that people were holding up their phones and video recording the performance. All those screens between me and the actual performance were distracting. And even worse, people were taking mobile phone calls during the performance and talking coule be heard in the audience throughout it. It was fun to see the production, though.
Walking back to my guesthouse was magical that late in the evening. The streets were quiet. It was just me and all the old Chinese tiled-roof buildings. But what made it so special is that every house had lighted red silk lanterns hanging along the front of the building!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008--Pingyao to Dangjiocum to Xi'an
Well, my plans for today both worked out and didn't work out. I had no problem catching my train and getting a seat. And the people around me were nice and friendly (although there was little to no English spoken). But they smiled at me, helped me put my luggage in the overhead rack, shared sunflower seeds with me, etc.
We arrived in Hangcheng on time and caught a mini bus going to Dangjiacum, the village where I intended to visit and stay overnight in a homestay program. The mini-bus let me off at the road to Dangjiacum, and I walked the 2 km from the highway to the village. It didn't look like anything special as I approached. Then I came to an entrance where it is now necessary to pay a fee to walk through the streets. Well, I could see that some of the streets were unpaved and muddy from the recent rains. And nothing looked appealing from the gate, especially after the time I had just spent in Pingyao (where one can walk the streets for free). So I turned and walked back to the highway. I think Dangjiacum has decided it is better than it is worth to me as a tourist.
I was lucky to catch a mini-bus back to town just as I got to the highway. I had read my guidebook and knew that the hotels in town were as expensive as I had paid in Beijing. And it was still only about 14:45. I decided I should just continue traveling all the way to Xi'an. So I switched from the mini-bus to a Xi'an bus at the station, and left at 15:40. We arrived in Xi'an at 18:40, and I immediately caught a bus to the Bell Tower. Then I walked to a guesthouse that had been recommended to me by the one in Pingyao. It is only a year old and is in the syle of an old Chinese home. To get to my room, it is necessary to go past the second courtyard. The room is clean and nice with a big bed, a big TV, and a private bath. And the price is only 60% of what I would have had to pay in Hancheng for the night. So I am glad to be here. I can continue with my trip in a positive way.
I had dinner right across the street at a restaurant that was full of people. I sat on the 3rd floor and had a spicy vegetable dish (two kinds of mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, and other kinds of vegetables in a spicy sauce. It was good. And it was so hot that my lips were quivering at the end of the meal.
Now I will go to the room and think about the next few days. I have to decide what I will see and when. Also, I have to decide whether to stay at this guesthouse or to move to a nicer hotel for the rest of my stay. There are some good hotel bargains here in town, so I will check out some of them tomorrow morning.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Sun Is Out
Monday, June 16, 2008--Pingyao (Continued)
Pingyao is such a nice place. It is the best preserved walled city from the Qing Dynesty period in all of China. It is unbelievable how well the wall is preserved. And inside the walls it is all old and wonderful. Furthermore, only bicycles and electric vehicles are allowed inside the walls, and only bicycles and pedestrians on the major streets within the inner core. The city was the home of a major Chinese bank that grew to have branches throughout the country in the 1800s. That's where its wealth came from and why the buildings are so wonderful here.
I ate dinner at the guesthouse where I am staying. I ordered pork with peppers and had it with rice and a bottle of the local beer. Beer here, by the way, is weak--3.1% alcohol. The food was good. It was nice to have something spicy.
I visited with June and Bill, two Australians who are staying here at the guesthouse. They are both over 75 and are traveling independently. They are covering more or less the same route I am. Originally, they were going to take the train to Tibet, but Tibet is off limits to foreigners because of the recent protests and the crackdown that was implemented to restore order. The couple takes in Chinese students for homestays in Australia when they come there to learn English. They said they get to see almost everything free here in China because of a law that allows anyone over 75 to be admitted for free.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008--Pingyao
I slept so well last night. My bed is big enough for 4 people. It is in the Chinese style--a huge platform covered in a cotton mattress which is really just a cotton pad about 5 cm (2 inches) thick.
This morning, I solved my problem related to my next move. I CAN go where I wanted to go by a morning train that leaves at 7:35. I went to the train station and bought a ticket. I could not get an assigned seat, but many people come here from Beijing on the overnight train sleeper car. The owner of my guesthouse said I should be able to find a seat in the sleeper car that has been vacated by a tourist getting off here. I hope so, because I will not arrive at Hancheng until 13:35.
After getting my ticket, I bought a ticket to the tourist attractions here in the city. They sell one ticket good for admission to almost everything. I toured the bank building, the home of the owner of the bank, the courts and other county offices, the Taoist temple, the wall around the city, and a couple of other major sites. If I were going to be here tomorrow, I could tour more; the ticket is good for two days. It is supposed to give me free admission to the theater tonight for a song/dance performance. I guess I will go to that, although I am worried about it keeping me up too late due to my early departure tomorrow morning.
There has been no more rain since late yesterday afternoon. I cleaned my shoes and a couple of spots on my pants. The sun finally came out today as much as the sun seems to ever come out here in China. Even in these more remote areas, the air polution is so bad that it is often possible to look directly at the sun and see it as a golden disk in the sky. That creates a real problem for tourists. It's almost impossible to take decent photos due to the constant haze which is like having a light fog.
My plans are to stay in a small village tomorrow night if possible. I don't know what I will do about my luggage. Maybe I can store it in Hancheng and just go to the village with no luggage. It is supposed to be another nice, old place called Dangjiacun. I doubt that there will be an internet connection there.
Pingyao is such a nice place. It is the best preserved walled city from the Qing Dynesty period in all of China. It is unbelievable how well the wall is preserved. And inside the walls it is all old and wonderful. Furthermore, only bicycles and electric vehicles are allowed inside the walls, and only bicycles and pedestrians on the major streets within the inner core. The city was the home of a major Chinese bank that grew to have branches throughout the country in the 1800s. That's where its wealth came from and why the buildings are so wonderful here.
I ate dinner at the guesthouse where I am staying. I ordered pork with peppers and had it with rice and a bottle of the local beer. Beer here, by the way, is weak--3.1% alcohol. The food was good. It was nice to have something spicy.
I visited with June and Bill, two Australians who are staying here at the guesthouse. They are both over 75 and are traveling independently. They are covering more or less the same route I am. Originally, they were going to take the train to Tibet, but Tibet is off limits to foreigners because of the recent protests and the crackdown that was implemented to restore order. The couple takes in Chinese students for homestays in Australia when they come there to learn English. They said they get to see almost everything free here in China because of a law that allows anyone over 75 to be admitted for free.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008--Pingyao
I slept so well last night. My bed is big enough for 4 people. It is in the Chinese style--a huge platform covered in a cotton mattress which is really just a cotton pad about 5 cm (2 inches) thick.
This morning, I solved my problem related to my next move. I CAN go where I wanted to go by a morning train that leaves at 7:35. I went to the train station and bought a ticket. I could not get an assigned seat, but many people come here from Beijing on the overnight train sleeper car. The owner of my guesthouse said I should be able to find a seat in the sleeper car that has been vacated by a tourist getting off here. I hope so, because I will not arrive at Hancheng until 13:35.
After getting my ticket, I bought a ticket to the tourist attractions here in the city. They sell one ticket good for admission to almost everything. I toured the bank building, the home of the owner of the bank, the courts and other county offices, the Taoist temple, the wall around the city, and a couple of other major sites. If I were going to be here tomorrow, I could tour more; the ticket is good for two days. It is supposed to give me free admission to the theater tonight for a song/dance performance. I guess I will go to that, although I am worried about it keeping me up too late due to my early departure tomorrow morning.
There has been no more rain since late yesterday afternoon. I cleaned my shoes and a couple of spots on my pants. The sun finally came out today as much as the sun seems to ever come out here in China. Even in these more remote areas, the air polution is so bad that it is often possible to look directly at the sun and see it as a golden disk in the sky. That creates a real problem for tourists. It's almost impossible to take decent photos due to the constant haze which is like having a light fog.
My plans are to stay in a small village tomorrow night if possible. I don't know what I will do about my luggage. Maybe I can store it in Hancheng and just go to the village with no luggage. It is supposed to be another nice, old place called Dangjiacun. I doubt that there will be an internet connection there.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Finally, the Day Improves!
Sunday, June 15, 2008--Taiyuan (Continued)
I am so tired of the problems pedestrians have here. It almost makes me wat to leave the country. Now that it is raining, it is especially exaggerated. Bicyclists and motorcycles pay no attention to any lights. They just continue and expect pedestrians to be watching for them from all directions. Cars turn right on a red light without stopping and expect pedestrians to watch for them and stop. It is so frustrating. I have often wished someone made a small hand-carried air horn that I could scare them to death with! I am almost to the point of holding my key in my hand so that it scratches their car if they come too close to me.
I stopped to eat at a place where there is no English--written or spoken. It had started to rain, and I wanted out of it. I decided to stop at the first clean place that I came through on my way back to the hotel. The ladies operating it were nice. When I saw a plate of dumplings being carried to another table, I pointed to them. Then I took out a piece of paper and drew a picture of a pig so they would know I wanted pork dumplings. They were tasty and cheap. While waiting for them, I started writing in my journal. Soon, about 5 people were standing around me watching me write. They laughed when they saw me draw my picture of the pig in my journal.
I was disturbed at 23:45. Someone tried to open my door. Then there was knocking and two women were outside. There seemed to be some confusion about my room. Maybe they had rented it to one of the women only to learn that I was already there. Anyway, they went away after I showed them the ID I had for the room.
Monday, June 16, 2008--Taijuan to Pingyao
It's been a bad day. First, it was still raining this morning. That makes traveling a hassle. But here in China where there is so much construction, it is even worse.
I checked out of the hotel and took a bus across the Yingse River to try to see the Shanxi Museum. It is supposed to be one of the nicest provencial museums in the country. The guidebook had said it closes on the 15th and the 30th of each month, so I had purposely NOT gone there yesterday after arriving.
The main road is underconstruction just on the other side of the river bridge. So instead of going straight and stopping right by the bridge, the bus squeezed in with all the other traffic to go down a side street. It didn't stop for some time. I had to backtrack to get to the river. Then as I followed the directions of my guidebook, I encountered roads under construction. What a sloppy mess. There was soupy mud about 2 cm (1 inch) deep. At the same time, I had to watch for cars or motorcycles going by at a high enough speed to splash the slush onto me. I walked about 3 blocks in that mess. Finally, I could see the museum, and the street beside it was also under construction. And it looked as if no one was there. I continued, though. When I got to the ticket office, there was a sign: Closed on Mondays. The guidebook had said nothing about it being closed on Mondays!! I had to return through all that slop.
I was so disgusted with the bad weather, the messy walkways, etc., that I just didn't want to go back to the hotel and stay another night. Instead, I went to the train station and bought a ticket for Pingyao. However, there were no seats, and the train would not leave for another 2 hours. I decided to go out into the mess again and try for a bus. So I walked across the street with large puddles of standing water (there was standing water everywhere, since there seems to be no drainage system), caught the bus to the bus station. Well, as we approached the bus station, there was street construction again!!!! All traffic was having to do a u-turn after letting people off. The bus let us off into the sloppy road, and I manuevered my way on down the street to the station. I bought a ticket for Pingyao and boarded my bus.
The bus left just 25 minutes later. But it took us 15 minutes to get out of the bus lot due to the traffic mess caused by vehicles dropping off and turning around on a narrow street. Then it took another 45 minutes to get out of town due to heavy traffic. And when we finally reached the highway, it was under construction. We bounced and twisted our way slowly. We drove through high water. It took us 3 hours to make the trip that is normally 1 1/2 hours long!!!! I was so frustrated by then. We passed the house where the Chinese film Raise the Red Lantern was filmed on the way. I would like to see it, but I am not going back out on that highway!
Pingyao is the most complete walled city in all of China. It is really something special. The walls are well preserved, and every building inside is an old Chinese building. For pictures, go here: http://images.google.com/images?hl=ja&q=pingyao&lr=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
The bus let me off near a gate to Pingyao, but I didn't know which one. I had a map of the city, but was I walking from the north, the east, the west, the south? I knew the place I wanted to stay. I just walked until I reached an intersection. Then I asked someone there for the street I wanted. When they motioned that I should go one way and then turn right, I could figure out where I was on the map. I then walked quickly to the guesthouse I had chosen.
I am staying at the Harmony Guesthouse. It is an old building with a courtyard. My room faces the courtyard and has a huge bed and a TV. The owner served me tea when I arrived. Then he showed me the room. It is very nice for the price. And the atmosphere is great. Unfortunately, it is still raining, but I feel so much more comfortable now that I am here. This town has no construction inside the walls, so I can wander with my umbrella even if it is raining. I will stay here at least 2 nights. The owner is checking on information about how to get to the next place I hope to visit.
I am so tired of the problems pedestrians have here. It almost makes me wat to leave the country. Now that it is raining, it is especially exaggerated. Bicyclists and motorcycles pay no attention to any lights. They just continue and expect pedestrians to be watching for them from all directions. Cars turn right on a red light without stopping and expect pedestrians to watch for them and stop. It is so frustrating. I have often wished someone made a small hand-carried air horn that I could scare them to death with! I am almost to the point of holding my key in my hand so that it scratches their car if they come too close to me.
I stopped to eat at a place where there is no English--written or spoken. It had started to rain, and I wanted out of it. I decided to stop at the first clean place that I came through on my way back to the hotel. The ladies operating it were nice. When I saw a plate of dumplings being carried to another table, I pointed to them. Then I took out a piece of paper and drew a picture of a pig so they would know I wanted pork dumplings. They were tasty and cheap. While waiting for them, I started writing in my journal. Soon, about 5 people were standing around me watching me write. They laughed when they saw me draw my picture of the pig in my journal.
I was disturbed at 23:45. Someone tried to open my door. Then there was knocking and two women were outside. There seemed to be some confusion about my room. Maybe they had rented it to one of the women only to learn that I was already there. Anyway, they went away after I showed them the ID I had for the room.
Monday, June 16, 2008--Taijuan to Pingyao
It's been a bad day. First, it was still raining this morning. That makes traveling a hassle. But here in China where there is so much construction, it is even worse.
I checked out of the hotel and took a bus across the Yingse River to try to see the Shanxi Museum. It is supposed to be one of the nicest provencial museums in the country. The guidebook had said it closes on the 15th and the 30th of each month, so I had purposely NOT gone there yesterday after arriving.
The main road is underconstruction just on the other side of the river bridge. So instead of going straight and stopping right by the bridge, the bus squeezed in with all the other traffic to go down a side street. It didn't stop for some time. I had to backtrack to get to the river. Then as I followed the directions of my guidebook, I encountered roads under construction. What a sloppy mess. There was soupy mud about 2 cm (1 inch) deep. At the same time, I had to watch for cars or motorcycles going by at a high enough speed to splash the slush onto me. I walked about 3 blocks in that mess. Finally, I could see the museum, and the street beside it was also under construction. And it looked as if no one was there. I continued, though. When I got to the ticket office, there was a sign: Closed on Mondays. The guidebook had said nothing about it being closed on Mondays!! I had to return through all that slop.
I was so disgusted with the bad weather, the messy walkways, etc., that I just didn't want to go back to the hotel and stay another night. Instead, I went to the train station and bought a ticket for Pingyao. However, there were no seats, and the train would not leave for another 2 hours. I decided to go out into the mess again and try for a bus. So I walked across the street with large puddles of standing water (there was standing water everywhere, since there seems to be no drainage system), caught the bus to the bus station. Well, as we approached the bus station, there was street construction again!!!! All traffic was having to do a u-turn after letting people off. The bus let us off into the sloppy road, and I manuevered my way on down the street to the station. I bought a ticket for Pingyao and boarded my bus.
The bus left just 25 minutes later. But it took us 15 minutes to get out of the bus lot due to the traffic mess caused by vehicles dropping off and turning around on a narrow street. Then it took another 45 minutes to get out of town due to heavy traffic. And when we finally reached the highway, it was under construction. We bounced and twisted our way slowly. We drove through high water. It took us 3 hours to make the trip that is normally 1 1/2 hours long!!!! I was so frustrated by then. We passed the house where the Chinese film Raise the Red Lantern was filmed on the way. I would like to see it, but I am not going back out on that highway!
Pingyao is the most complete walled city in all of China. It is really something special. The walls are well preserved, and every building inside is an old Chinese building. For pictures, go here: http://images.google.com/images?hl=ja&q=pingyao&lr=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
The bus let me off near a gate to Pingyao, but I didn't know which one. I had a map of the city, but was I walking from the north, the east, the west, the south? I knew the place I wanted to stay. I just walked until I reached an intersection. Then I asked someone there for the street I wanted. When they motioned that I should go one way and then turn right, I could figure out where I was on the map. I then walked quickly to the guesthouse I had chosen.
I am staying at the Harmony Guesthouse. It is an old building with a courtyard. My room faces the courtyard and has a huge bed and a TV. The owner served me tea when I arrived. Then he showed me the room. It is very nice for the price. And the atmosphere is great. Unfortunately, it is still raining, but I feel so much more comfortable now that I am here. This town has no construction inside the walls, so I can wander with my umbrella even if it is raining. I will stay here at least 2 nights. The owner is checking on information about how to get to the next place I hope to visit.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Another Dining Experience
Saturday, June 14, 2008--Datong (Continued)
I had another dining experience tonight. On my way back to the hotel from the cyber cafe, I was looking for a place to eat. I intended to eat the local specialty of pork dumplings marinated in vinegar. But I didn't find a place with them. I entered a place without realizing that it specialized only in mutton hotpot. The owner was enthusiastic, so I stayed. I ended up with enough food for 4 people, but it was a good experience.
They bring out a pot with a soup mixture in a middle portion and a meat mixture in an outer ring. They place it in a hole in the middle of the table and turn on the gas under it so that it begins to boil. In addition, they brought marinated mutton chunks, mushrooms, a green vegetable dish, noodles, rice, etc. The owner helped me. He put some chopped green onions into a bowl and dipped the soup into it. In the meantime, he put the noodles and mushrooms into the ring with the meat mixture. The mutton in the ring was mutton ribs. They were very tasty and very tender. There were also chunks of carrots in the mixture. I ate mutton, noodles, greens, rice, etc. I used both chopsticks and plastic gloves which they provided for pulling the meat from the ribs and the membranes from the meat. At the end of the meal, they brought a plate of watermellon. When I was finished, there still was enough food for 3-4 other people. Everyone else in the resaurant was in a big group. I should have been, too.
In China, they do not use hundredths when giving prices. They use only tenths. Therefore, something may cost 5.2 yuan--5 yuan and 2/10s of another yuan. They they have coins and bills for those 10ths that just have the numbers 1 and 5 on them. When they brought my bill for the dinner, I was afraid it was 710 yuan--about $100! But it was 71.0 yuan. That made it much better!!!
Sunday, June 15, 2008--Datong to Taiyuan
I was up early to go see the cave carvings outside Datong. This was the end of the Silk Road route, and the pilgrims and caravans came here. Many of them worshipped Buddha. Well, over 1500 years ago, they began carving huge Buddha statues in a mountain outside of town. These are giant carvings of Buddha's whole body. There are over 30 different big carvings, with about 8 of those being really HUGE. The biggest ones are much like the Buddha carvings that the Taliban destroyed in Afghanistan. Some have great detail. Some have elaborate paintings. The place is called Yungang Caves.
I returned to town by bus, picked up my luggage from the hotel, and headed to the main bus station. I immediately caught a bus to Taiyuan, my next stop. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get here over a very nice 4-lane highway. The ride was so smooth that I kept falling asleep.
I made a decision to stay in a simpler hotel here. I wanted to see the difference in it and where I have been staying. The only difference is that this one is a bit more worn. The others have all been remodeled and cost about $40 per night. This one costs about $20 and has all the features of the others--a/c, telephone, cable tv, nice sheets and comforter, etc. But the carpeting is not as new, the walls are scratched or stained in places, the bath does not have new fixtures, etc.
I will repeat my procedure from Datong. Tomorrow morning, I will see the main tourist site here, then I will travel to my next town. Will write about it when I am back on the computer again.
I had another dining experience tonight. On my way back to the hotel from the cyber cafe, I was looking for a place to eat. I intended to eat the local specialty of pork dumplings marinated in vinegar. But I didn't find a place with them. I entered a place without realizing that it specialized only in mutton hotpot. The owner was enthusiastic, so I stayed. I ended up with enough food for 4 people, but it was a good experience.
They bring out a pot with a soup mixture in a middle portion and a meat mixture in an outer ring. They place it in a hole in the middle of the table and turn on the gas under it so that it begins to boil. In addition, they brought marinated mutton chunks, mushrooms, a green vegetable dish, noodles, rice, etc. The owner helped me. He put some chopped green onions into a bowl and dipped the soup into it. In the meantime, he put the noodles and mushrooms into the ring with the meat mixture. The mutton in the ring was mutton ribs. They were very tasty and very tender. There were also chunks of carrots in the mixture. I ate mutton, noodles, greens, rice, etc. I used both chopsticks and plastic gloves which they provided for pulling the meat from the ribs and the membranes from the meat. At the end of the meal, they brought a plate of watermellon. When I was finished, there still was enough food for 3-4 other people. Everyone else in the resaurant was in a big group. I should have been, too.
In China, they do not use hundredths when giving prices. They use only tenths. Therefore, something may cost 5.2 yuan--5 yuan and 2/10s of another yuan. They they have coins and bills for those 10ths that just have the numbers 1 and 5 on them. When they brought my bill for the dinner, I was afraid it was 710 yuan--about $100! But it was 71.0 yuan. That made it much better!!!
Sunday, June 15, 2008--Datong to Taiyuan
I was up early to go see the cave carvings outside Datong. This was the end of the Silk Road route, and the pilgrims and caravans came here. Many of them worshipped Buddha. Well, over 1500 years ago, they began carving huge Buddha statues in a mountain outside of town. These are giant carvings of Buddha's whole body. There are over 30 different big carvings, with about 8 of those being really HUGE. The biggest ones are much like the Buddha carvings that the Taliban destroyed in Afghanistan. Some have great detail. Some have elaborate paintings. The place is called Yungang Caves.
I returned to town by bus, picked up my luggage from the hotel, and headed to the main bus station. I immediately caught a bus to Taiyuan, my next stop. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get here over a very nice 4-lane highway. The ride was so smooth that I kept falling asleep.
I made a decision to stay in a simpler hotel here. I wanted to see the difference in it and where I have been staying. The only difference is that this one is a bit more worn. The others have all been remodeled and cost about $40 per night. This one costs about $20 and has all the features of the others--a/c, telephone, cable tv, nice sheets and comforter, etc. But the carpeting is not as new, the walls are scratched or stained in places, the bath does not have new fixtures, etc.
I will repeat my procedure from Datong. Tomorrow morning, I will see the main tourist site here, then I will travel to my next town. Will write about it when I am back on the computer again.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Near Mongolia
Friday, June 13, 2008--Beijing (Continued)
I found a place to weigh myself. I had been looking in pharmacies hoping to find one with a scale. Finally I did. I was a bit disappointed, however. I still have not lost as much weight as I thought I might have. I now weigh (with my clothes on) 80 kg (176 lbs.). I hope to lose at least 8 more kg (17 lbs).
Rain came about 17:00. It poured and poured and poured. Fortunately, I had just gotten to my room a few minutes earlier. By 19:00, there was a lull, so I took advantage of the situation to go around the corner to a nearby restaurant I had seen. I didn't want to go too far in case the rain returned.
There was a huge menu with food made from almost any part of any animal you can imagine. How do pork tendons sound? Donkey dumplings? (They say that donkey is absolutely wonderful.) I ordered chicken with peanuts. It was small chunks of chicken with peanuts, green onions, pieces of ginger, peppers, etc. It was spicy and delicious. I ate rice with it and was stuffed again. The dish is meant to be ordered by a group of 3-5 sharing 2-3 dishes. Since I was alone, I got the whole thing.
The rain returned again and lasted through the night. I stayed inside and finished readsing A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham. I was a bit disappointed in it. I had heard such great things about it. I saw the film, but all I remember about it is that the critics didn't care much for it and I was a bit disappointed in it, too. But the book didn't remind me much of the film. I think the story must have been greatly rewritten for the film. Anyway, I gave the book 2 1/2 stars out of 4. The writing was fine, but the characters just weren't intriguing. They were self-centered and incapable of loving others. Their lives were really rather miserable.
Saturday, June 14, 2008--Beijing to Datong
I was up early. Had breakfast when they opened at 7:00. Then checked out after going back to the room to clean my teeth. Took the metro to the western train station and was surprised that there is rush hour traffic on Saturday. Maybe most people here work 6 days a week. I managed, however, to find a car with room for me and my luggage without people feeling inconvenienced. It was sprinkling again when I walked from the metro to the train station, but not bad enough for me to need an umbrella.
Getting onto the train was an experience. I already knew the system from my visit to Shanghai. There is a waiting hall for each track. I got in line behind hundreds of other people already waiting in the hall for our train with 35 minutes still to go before departure. It was hot from so many of us being in such a small area. About 15 minutes before departure, they let us through to the tracks. Everyone was rushing. I found my car and went on. My seat was toward the middle, and before I could get to it, there were people coming down the aisle the other way. I had to raise my suitcase and rest it on my head to squeeze by them. Then the racks for the suitcases were very high. I had to stand on a seat to put my bags on the rack. At least there was a space available (about the only one left) so I could watch them from my seat.
I was lucky to have a seat. Many people bought standing tickets. Every seat was full, and people were standing in the aisle all the way through the carriage. Many of them appeared to be poor. The man across the aisle was wearing pants with no zipper and with the crotch ripped open. Others had skin that showed they had been in the sun a lot and hands that showed they had done manual labor. Most had Mongolian facial features. I was sitting across from a couple who seemed to be middle class. In fact, I imagine he could be a communist party functionary, since he took control to manage the crowd a couple of times as people were settling into places. A young woman was beside me, and I assumed she was with the couple. I was wrong, however. She finally spoke to me in English. She is working on a master's degree and was on her way to have a long weekend with her boyfriend who is working in Inner Mongolia. She was probably the only English-speaking person in that car, and she was right beside me. How lucky I was. We talked a lot. And she helped make sure that I knew when we got to the stop where I was to get off. She still had another 4 hours to go to her destination.
Datong is not a pretty town. In fact, it is a very dirty town. There is soot everywhere from automobile exhausts. There are nice sections of town, but in general it appears to be a town that is dirty and disorganized. I got a nice room in one of the better hotels. The room is newly remodeled (they are still working on the floor below mine) and costs about $38. There are cheaper hotels in the area, but I decided to stay in this one.
Tomorrow, I will go to visit the caves near here that have famous Buddhist carvings. Then I will take an express bus to another city 3 hours south of here. Will post again when I get a chance.
I found a place to weigh myself. I had been looking in pharmacies hoping to find one with a scale. Finally I did. I was a bit disappointed, however. I still have not lost as much weight as I thought I might have. I now weigh (with my clothes on) 80 kg (176 lbs.). I hope to lose at least 8 more kg (17 lbs).
Rain came about 17:00. It poured and poured and poured. Fortunately, I had just gotten to my room a few minutes earlier. By 19:00, there was a lull, so I took advantage of the situation to go around the corner to a nearby restaurant I had seen. I didn't want to go too far in case the rain returned.
There was a huge menu with food made from almost any part of any animal you can imagine. How do pork tendons sound? Donkey dumplings? (They say that donkey is absolutely wonderful.) I ordered chicken with peanuts. It was small chunks of chicken with peanuts, green onions, pieces of ginger, peppers, etc. It was spicy and delicious. I ate rice with it and was stuffed again. The dish is meant to be ordered by a group of 3-5 sharing 2-3 dishes. Since I was alone, I got the whole thing.
The rain returned again and lasted through the night. I stayed inside and finished readsing A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham. I was a bit disappointed in it. I had heard such great things about it. I saw the film, but all I remember about it is that the critics didn't care much for it and I was a bit disappointed in it, too. But the book didn't remind me much of the film. I think the story must have been greatly rewritten for the film. Anyway, I gave the book 2 1/2 stars out of 4. The writing was fine, but the characters just weren't intriguing. They were self-centered and incapable of loving others. Their lives were really rather miserable.
Saturday, June 14, 2008--Beijing to Datong
I was up early. Had breakfast when they opened at 7:00. Then checked out after going back to the room to clean my teeth. Took the metro to the western train station and was surprised that there is rush hour traffic on Saturday. Maybe most people here work 6 days a week. I managed, however, to find a car with room for me and my luggage without people feeling inconvenienced. It was sprinkling again when I walked from the metro to the train station, but not bad enough for me to need an umbrella.
Getting onto the train was an experience. I already knew the system from my visit to Shanghai. There is a waiting hall for each track. I got in line behind hundreds of other people already waiting in the hall for our train with 35 minutes still to go before departure. It was hot from so many of us being in such a small area. About 15 minutes before departure, they let us through to the tracks. Everyone was rushing. I found my car and went on. My seat was toward the middle, and before I could get to it, there were people coming down the aisle the other way. I had to raise my suitcase and rest it on my head to squeeze by them. Then the racks for the suitcases were very high. I had to stand on a seat to put my bags on the rack. At least there was a space available (about the only one left) so I could watch them from my seat.
I was lucky to have a seat. Many people bought standing tickets. Every seat was full, and people were standing in the aisle all the way through the carriage. Many of them appeared to be poor. The man across the aisle was wearing pants with no zipper and with the crotch ripped open. Others had skin that showed they had been in the sun a lot and hands that showed they had done manual labor. Most had Mongolian facial features. I was sitting across from a couple who seemed to be middle class. In fact, I imagine he could be a communist party functionary, since he took control to manage the crowd a couple of times as people were settling into places. A young woman was beside me, and I assumed she was with the couple. I was wrong, however. She finally spoke to me in English. She is working on a master's degree and was on her way to have a long weekend with her boyfriend who is working in Inner Mongolia. She was probably the only English-speaking person in that car, and she was right beside me. How lucky I was. We talked a lot. And she helped make sure that I knew when we got to the stop where I was to get off. She still had another 4 hours to go to her destination.
Datong is not a pretty town. In fact, it is a very dirty town. There is soot everywhere from automobile exhausts. There are nice sections of town, but in general it appears to be a town that is dirty and disorganized. I got a nice room in one of the better hotels. The room is newly remodeled (they are still working on the floor below mine) and costs about $38. There are cheaper hotels in the area, but I decided to stay in this one.
Tomorrow, I will go to visit the caves near here that have famous Buddhist carvings. Then I will take an express bus to another city 3 hours south of here. Will post again when I get a chance.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Exploring on My Last Day
Thursday, June 12, 2008--Beijing (Continued)
I went wandering in the early evening. I walked down the nearby walking street. The neon lights were flashing on all the stores. I went into one department store to explore. It was beautifully done inside--half the store remodeled and the other half being an addition. Their food halls were nice to explore. I also just watched everyone having a good time.
I went around to another block to find a restaurant recommended by my guidebook. They specialize in dumplings. I got two orders--one of pork with cabbage and one of mutton with onions. Each consisted of 10 dumplings. There was a woman behind a glass partition making the dumplings as they were ordered. I saw her dipping the inner mixture with a spoon, putting it into a flat dumpling disk, and them pinching the dumpling closed. She tossed each dumpling into a wooden basket with a woven bottom. Then when she had them all prepared, she put the basket into a steamer to cook them. They came to the table hot and very fresh. I mixed some pepper sauce into some soy sauce and started eating. UMMMM! But 20 dumplings is a lot of food. I barely finished them off.
A Norwegian couple came into the restaurant while I was there. They had their 15-month-old daughter with them. The staff of the restaurant went wild over the blue-eyed blond. They baby sat her while her parents ate. They asked me about going to the wall, so I wrote directions about where to go to catch the bus and which bus to take.
Friday, June 13, 2008--Beijing
I decided to explore today. First, I walked north from my hotel to the National Museum. It is the museum that was having an opening the artist on my airport bus encouraged me to attend on Monday night. The exhibit there is of new media. Most of it is interactive. It was so much fun. And it was fun watching everyone else there. I got several photos of me interacting with various works. It's hard to describe the pieces. I think it's best to try to see such an exhibit.
From there, I walked further to a popular hudong here in town. That's a "local neighborhood." It's what has been torn down in so many parts of Beijing to make way for huge hotels, offices, etc. This one is located just northeast of the Forbidden City and is still intact. It's so pleasant to walk along the narrow streets and see the small shops in the quaint buildings with tiled roofs. This one is especially popular with tourists because of its location and the fact that there are several hostels within the area. Therefore, there are many small cafes and shops that cater to tourists. Unfortunately, like almost everywhere in Beijing these days, there was construction to mar the experience. They are putting new underground cables down the streets, so the pavement is torn up and the atmosphere is lessened by it.
While in the neighborhood, I wandered to an intersection where the Drum Tower exists. That's a tower that has a large drum. It used to be beaten to let the people know the hour of the day. Now it is just a big tower that is open to the public as a tourist attraction.
My guidebook showed an internet cafe nearby, so I went searching. China has been closing many internet cafes, and it is hard to find them. The one I have been using is in a youth hostel by the train station and charges more than the normal neighborhood places would. But there are no signs to make it obvious to the tourist that a cafe is here. The guidebook showed the Chinese symbols to watch for and said it would be on the second floor of the building. I found a stairway with one of the symbols over the doorway, so I went up. Sure enough, the cafe was there.
By the way, the first day I was here, I was able to read the Greenville and the Commerce newspapers online. Not since. My guess is that the government minders go over the websites that foreigners visit (since we have to be identified by our passports when we use the internet) and decide which websites to block. Of course, the Greenville and Commerce newspapers have nothing but local news on them--turning the first spade of dirt for the new elementary school, the wreck that injured 3 people, the fund drive for the family whose house burned, etc.
Oh, I forgot to mention Nike. They have the costumes for the Chinese teams in their stores. But they won't let people take photos!!! What a turn off. Do they expect we will copy them and put them on a competing team at this late date? Makes me want to boycot their stores.
I went wandering in the early evening. I walked down the nearby walking street. The neon lights were flashing on all the stores. I went into one department store to explore. It was beautifully done inside--half the store remodeled and the other half being an addition. Their food halls were nice to explore. I also just watched everyone having a good time.
I went around to another block to find a restaurant recommended by my guidebook. They specialize in dumplings. I got two orders--one of pork with cabbage and one of mutton with onions. Each consisted of 10 dumplings. There was a woman behind a glass partition making the dumplings as they were ordered. I saw her dipping the inner mixture with a spoon, putting it into a flat dumpling disk, and them pinching the dumpling closed. She tossed each dumpling into a wooden basket with a woven bottom. Then when she had them all prepared, she put the basket into a steamer to cook them. They came to the table hot and very fresh. I mixed some pepper sauce into some soy sauce and started eating. UMMMM! But 20 dumplings is a lot of food. I barely finished them off.
A Norwegian couple came into the restaurant while I was there. They had their 15-month-old daughter with them. The staff of the restaurant went wild over the blue-eyed blond. They baby sat her while her parents ate. They asked me about going to the wall, so I wrote directions about where to go to catch the bus and which bus to take.
Friday, June 13, 2008--Beijing
I decided to explore today. First, I walked north from my hotel to the National Museum. It is the museum that was having an opening the artist on my airport bus encouraged me to attend on Monday night. The exhibit there is of new media. Most of it is interactive. It was so much fun. And it was fun watching everyone else there. I got several photos of me interacting with various works. It's hard to describe the pieces. I think it's best to try to see such an exhibit.
From there, I walked further to a popular hudong here in town. That's a "local neighborhood." It's what has been torn down in so many parts of Beijing to make way for huge hotels, offices, etc. This one is located just northeast of the Forbidden City and is still intact. It's so pleasant to walk along the narrow streets and see the small shops in the quaint buildings with tiled roofs. This one is especially popular with tourists because of its location and the fact that there are several hostels within the area. Therefore, there are many small cafes and shops that cater to tourists. Unfortunately, like almost everywhere in Beijing these days, there was construction to mar the experience. They are putting new underground cables down the streets, so the pavement is torn up and the atmosphere is lessened by it.
While in the neighborhood, I wandered to an intersection where the Drum Tower exists. That's a tower that has a large drum. It used to be beaten to let the people know the hour of the day. Now it is just a big tower that is open to the public as a tourist attraction.
My guidebook showed an internet cafe nearby, so I went searching. China has been closing many internet cafes, and it is hard to find them. The one I have been using is in a youth hostel by the train station and charges more than the normal neighborhood places would. But there are no signs to make it obvious to the tourist that a cafe is here. The guidebook showed the Chinese symbols to watch for and said it would be on the second floor of the building. I found a stairway with one of the symbols over the doorway, so I went up. Sure enough, the cafe was there.
By the way, the first day I was here, I was able to read the Greenville and the Commerce newspapers online. Not since. My guess is that the government minders go over the websites that foreigners visit (since we have to be identified by our passports when we use the internet) and decide which websites to block. Of course, the Greenville and Commerce newspapers have nothing but local news on them--turning the first spade of dirt for the new elementary school, the wreck that injured 3 people, the fund drive for the family whose house burned, etc.
Oh, I forgot to mention Nike. They have the costumes for the Chinese teams in their stores. But they won't let people take photos!!! What a turn off. Do they expect we will copy them and put them on a competing team at this late date? Makes me want to boycot their stores.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Peking Duck
Wednesday, June 11, 2008--Beijing (Continued)
All the guidebooks say that one must try Peking Duck when in Beijing, so I decided that tonight was the night for doing it. One of the restaurants that is highly recommended is just around the corner from my hotel--the Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. It's a huge place with 5 floors. I was directed to the 4th food. Most people were there in big parties, so I am sure they hate to see a single person like me come into the place. But they treated me well. It was a fancy place. When I set my bag on the floor beside me, they picked it up, put it in a chair, and then placed a fabric cover over it. The chopsticks were resting on a ceramic duck holder. The tablecloths were gold for the bottom cloth and read for the place cloth. The room was elegantly decorated, and all the waitresses wore beautiful costumes with long, split skirts.
I ordered half a duck which is really enough duck for 2 persons. I am sure that parties of 4-5 generally order one whole duck. But I don't think it is possible to order less than a half which my guidebook had mentioned was available. The prices must have already been raised for the Olympics, because the price in my guidebook which was published earlier this year was about 60% of the present menu price at the restaurant. Instead of paying 58 yuan for half a duck, I had to pay 99. But I knew it would be an experience that I should have. I also ordered the usual dark sauce, scallions, rice pancakes (paper thin wrappers like are used for spring rolls), and a beer.
The chefs wheel the duck out on a cart and carve it at the table. They brought out a whole duck to carve my half. When they finished, half was bones and the other half was complete. First the chef cut off part of the skin and served it with a small bowl of sugar. One is supposed to eat it while it is hot and crispy and while the carver is cutting up the rest of the duck. It was delicious and felt as if I were having dessert first. They put the rest of the skin on the bottom of a plate, covered it with the bits and pieces of meat off the leg and wing, and then topped it all with the slices of the breast. Then they cut the neck and put it on another plate.
I had been watching other tables while I waited and already had surmised that it should be eaten like tacos at home--by putting some of the meat and the scallions in the wrapper and folding and rolling it up. But the waitress picked up my chopsticks and prepared the first one for me as a lesson in how to prepare them properly. She put the wrapper flat on my plate. Picked up 2 pieces of meat one at a time, dipping them in the sauce and then placing them on the top half of the wrapper. She picked up two pieces of scallions and placed them on the meat. Then she folded the bottom half of the wrapper up over the meat and scallions. Finally, she folded each side over on top to create a bundle which could be held in the hands and would not leak out of the bottom. It was WONDERFUL!! I ate, and ate, and ate. By the end, I was putting 3-4 pieces of meat in each wrapper to avoid becoming too full. But I ate all of the duck, all of the sauce, and all of the scallions while leaving a few of the wrappers. I was stuffed!!! At the bottom of the plate were the smaller pieces of skin, so I dipped them into the remaining sugar for dessert. It was a greasy, high-cholesterol dinner, but a delicious one.
I wouldn't want to have it too often because of the calories and the fat. But I noticed that most people there were having celebrations. I think it must be only an occasional treat for everyone. It was a good experience for me.
Thursday, June 12, 2008--Beijing
I have to leave Beijing on Saturday. It may be a good day for leaving, since it looks as if the forecast may call for rain. But I have been lucky to have sunny days (to the extent that the sun can get through the smog) since I arrived.
China seems to be like India when it comes to train tickets. They sell out early, so it is necessary to go to the stations and stand in long lines to buy tickets in advance of travel. I made going to the station my first priority today. I will go to Datong from here. It's a town on the edge of the Mongolian Steppes. There are several trains from the western station here in Beijing, but I wanted to be sure I could get a ticket for Saturday morning. I went to the counter that is for foreign tourists and bought my ticket getting exactly what I wanted--a reserved seat on the 8:50 train Saturday morning. It will be a 5 1/2 hour trip getting me there around 14:30. I also wanted to buy a ticket for the night train from Datong to Pingyao, but the lady said I must buy it in Datong. Guess they haven't computerized all the trains so that tickets can be sold from anywhere. I hope there will be a sleeping berth available for Sunday night when I get there on Saturday afternoon!
From the train station, I took the metro and a bus to the Summer Palace. It's another of the big tourist sites here in town. Mainly, it is a park. All the old buildings which may have been part of the palace complex are mostly used for selling food, souvenirs, etc. But it is a wonderful park for strolling. There is a huge temple complex on top of a hill at the northern entrance. I walked part of the way up to see it, but I am so tired of temples I didn't think it would be worth it for me to climb the whole way. Besides, I am still tired from everything else I have been doing this week. After taking some photos and seeing the lower levels of the temple, I walked back down and took a circular route through the park. I stopped at a small garden built around a pond filled with water lillies and enjoyed hearing a local group playing music on harmonicas and a tubular instrument. I walked around part of the lake. I relaxed and enjoyed the breezes coming off the lake. I watched people in paddle boats and on tour boats in the lake. It's a very pleasant place to spend an afternoon.
I am so tired that the only thing I still plan to do today is to have dinner and go to my room. I'll read my guidebook to see what I will do tomorrow, since it will be my last day to enjoy the city.
All the guidebooks say that one must try Peking Duck when in Beijing, so I decided that tonight was the night for doing it. One of the restaurants that is highly recommended is just around the corner from my hotel--the Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. It's a huge place with 5 floors. I was directed to the 4th food. Most people were there in big parties, so I am sure they hate to see a single person like me come into the place. But they treated me well. It was a fancy place. When I set my bag on the floor beside me, they picked it up, put it in a chair, and then placed a fabric cover over it. The chopsticks were resting on a ceramic duck holder. The tablecloths were gold for the bottom cloth and read for the place cloth. The room was elegantly decorated, and all the waitresses wore beautiful costumes with long, split skirts.
I ordered half a duck which is really enough duck for 2 persons. I am sure that parties of 4-5 generally order one whole duck. But I don't think it is possible to order less than a half which my guidebook had mentioned was available. The prices must have already been raised for the Olympics, because the price in my guidebook which was published earlier this year was about 60% of the present menu price at the restaurant. Instead of paying 58 yuan for half a duck, I had to pay 99. But I knew it would be an experience that I should have. I also ordered the usual dark sauce, scallions, rice pancakes (paper thin wrappers like are used for spring rolls), and a beer.
The chefs wheel the duck out on a cart and carve it at the table. They brought out a whole duck to carve my half. When they finished, half was bones and the other half was complete. First the chef cut off part of the skin and served it with a small bowl of sugar. One is supposed to eat it while it is hot and crispy and while the carver is cutting up the rest of the duck. It was delicious and felt as if I were having dessert first. They put the rest of the skin on the bottom of a plate, covered it with the bits and pieces of meat off the leg and wing, and then topped it all with the slices of the breast. Then they cut the neck and put it on another plate.
I had been watching other tables while I waited and already had surmised that it should be eaten like tacos at home--by putting some of the meat and the scallions in the wrapper and folding and rolling it up. But the waitress picked up my chopsticks and prepared the first one for me as a lesson in how to prepare them properly. She put the wrapper flat on my plate. Picked up 2 pieces of meat one at a time, dipping them in the sauce and then placing them on the top half of the wrapper. She picked up two pieces of scallions and placed them on the meat. Then she folded the bottom half of the wrapper up over the meat and scallions. Finally, she folded each side over on top to create a bundle which could be held in the hands and would not leak out of the bottom. It was WONDERFUL!! I ate, and ate, and ate. By the end, I was putting 3-4 pieces of meat in each wrapper to avoid becoming too full. But I ate all of the duck, all of the sauce, and all of the scallions while leaving a few of the wrappers. I was stuffed!!! At the bottom of the plate were the smaller pieces of skin, so I dipped them into the remaining sugar for dessert. It was a greasy, high-cholesterol dinner, but a delicious one.
I wouldn't want to have it too often because of the calories and the fat. But I noticed that most people there were having celebrations. I think it must be only an occasional treat for everyone. It was a good experience for me.
Thursday, June 12, 2008--Beijing
I have to leave Beijing on Saturday. It may be a good day for leaving, since it looks as if the forecast may call for rain. But I have been lucky to have sunny days (to the extent that the sun can get through the smog) since I arrived.
China seems to be like India when it comes to train tickets. They sell out early, so it is necessary to go to the stations and stand in long lines to buy tickets in advance of travel. I made going to the station my first priority today. I will go to Datong from here. It's a town on the edge of the Mongolian Steppes. There are several trains from the western station here in Beijing, but I wanted to be sure I could get a ticket for Saturday morning. I went to the counter that is for foreign tourists and bought my ticket getting exactly what I wanted--a reserved seat on the 8:50 train Saturday morning. It will be a 5 1/2 hour trip getting me there around 14:30. I also wanted to buy a ticket for the night train from Datong to Pingyao, but the lady said I must buy it in Datong. Guess they haven't computerized all the trains so that tickets can be sold from anywhere. I hope there will be a sleeping berth available for Sunday night when I get there on Saturday afternoon!
From the train station, I took the metro and a bus to the Summer Palace. It's another of the big tourist sites here in town. Mainly, it is a park. All the old buildings which may have been part of the palace complex are mostly used for selling food, souvenirs, etc. But it is a wonderful park for strolling. There is a huge temple complex on top of a hill at the northern entrance. I walked part of the way up to see it, but I am so tired of temples I didn't think it would be worth it for me to climb the whole way. Besides, I am still tired from everything else I have been doing this week. After taking some photos and seeing the lower levels of the temple, I walked back down and took a circular route through the park. I stopped at a small garden built around a pond filled with water lillies and enjoyed hearing a local group playing music on harmonicas and a tubular instrument. I walked around part of the lake. I relaxed and enjoyed the breezes coming off the lake. I watched people in paddle boats and on tour boats in the lake. It's a very pleasant place to spend an afternoon.
I am so tired that the only thing I still plan to do today is to have dinner and go to my room. I'll read my guidebook to see what I will do tomorrow, since it will be my last day to enjoy the city.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Exploring Beijing
Monday, June 9, 2008--Beijing (Continued)
I was so tired that I bought a bottle of water and headed to the hotel after being at the Internet Cafe. I just wanted to go to bed. When I got to the room, however, the phone rang. It was an internet friend I have been communicating with. He's a 27-year-old former athlete who learned English communicating with other competetors at the international events. Now, he is an investment banker with a Swiss firm. He is on vacation right now and wanted to meet me. He arrived an hour or so later, and we visited for a couple of hours. He was gone by 22:00, so I still got to bed and had a nice night of sleep.
Tuesday, June 9, 2008--Beijing
I am still tired from the fact that I had to fly overnight to get here from Cebu. Even though I am dragging today, I forced myself to have a full day of activities in the city.
I am very fortunate with my room. Not only is it a very nice room--wonderful comfortor, good a/c, sparkling glass bathroom, etc., but it is in a perfect location. Right across the street is the Grand Hyatt (which probably costs 6-8 times what I am paying) and the Oriental Plaza Mall (the nicest and largest mall in the city). Just half a block away is a major walking street with shops, sidewalk eateries, etc. And the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are just about a 15-minute walk away.
My breakfast at the hotel is a Chinese one. Almost everyone staying at the hotel is Chinese. It is popular with businessmen, I think. It consisted of a boiled egg, fried sticks of bread (like churros without the cinnamon and sugar), steamed buns with bean paste inside, several choices of pickled vegetables which have a bit of a pepper bite to them, and choices of 3 kinds of porridge. The later were rather tasteless. But it was free with the room, so I ate up and then waited for the evening to eat again.
I headed to the Forbidden City to see it before the tour buses arrived. I was there when it opened at 8:30. It is larger than I expected. And it is also duller than I expected. It is like visiting temples (and very much like the temples in Korea and Taiwan), and I have visited too many of those over the years. But I pushed myself through the huge complex seeing what could be seen. I was happier when I went into the side areas where there seemed to be more character and more of a feel of a place where people would actually live. After 3 hours there, the crowds had built up, so I was ready to leave.
I walked across to Tiananmen Square. It seems smaller than I expected. The square itself is obviously huge, but there are building in the center of it which make it seem smaller than I expected. I thought it would be one, big empty square. There is a huge open space across the street from the Forbidden City, but the buildings in the rest of the square (including the one with Mao's body on display) really took up much of the area. There were many people in the square, but it didn't seem crowded at all. One problem is that there are no shady areas, so people are in the bright sunshine when they are there in the daytime. That is probably why it is popular to go there in the evenings.
From there, I headed for the Temple of Heaven where the emporers prayed. It is quite a distance, but I wanted to see everything along the way. My map showed a major street going south from Tiananmen Square to it, and showed that it had restaurants and other things to see along the way. When I got to the location of the street, however, it was gone. That seems to be the story here in Beijing. Huge parts of town are being bulldozed to rebuild. Many people were looking through holes in the construction wall, so I looked, too. What I saw was totally new construction designed to give the appearance of an idealized (think Disneyland) Chinese neighborhood from the 1930s or so. There is a street car line going down the middle of the street. My guess is that it will be open and functioning as a place to see "Old Beijing" by the time the Olympics arrive in two months.
I had to go to the side and take a major street that is totally new; it does not show on my guidebook map. It's the new traffic routing they constructed when they tore down the old neighborhood. Walking along this street is like walking along many Beijing streets today. It is green with lots of blooming flowers. Behind the greenery is a continuous wall. The city has done this on all their major streets all over the city. What they actually have done is tear down the businesses and houses along every major street going back at least 15-20 m (15-20 yards). It's possible to see the gagged walls of buildings where they were cut away just behind the new walls. They built walls to hide the neighborhoods that remain, and then planted the grass, trees, and flowers to make the streets look pretty. It's true that many of the neighborhoods behind these walls look like slums, but it is just amazing how many neighborhoods have been devastated by redevelopment and by shaving off their outer parts for these walls and gardens!
The Temple of Heaven was nice to see. Since it is one of the major symbols of the city, I wanted to see it. But it was a long way there in the hot sunshine. And it is really a rather simple building in the center of a big park. I actually enjoyed watching the people in the park more than I did seeing the temple itself. They were playing card games, dancing to music, etc. It seems to be a place where locals go to have a relaxed time. Inside the temple complex, a group of young Americans were being obnoxious and helping us live up to the old reputation of The Ugly American. They were sliding down the sides of the steps going to one of the temple buildings, making lots of noise, and in general showing that they had no respect for the place nor interest in it other than what fun they could have at it. They were a band group visiting from a U.S. school. I was so turned off that I didn't even want to pay attention to see what school it was.
Back at the hotel, I couldn't help but fall asleep even though I wanted to stay awake. After 45 minutes of catnapping, I forced myself to get up and go out again. I intended to eat at a snack street, but it wasn't what I really expected when I got there. I did buy a chicken shawarma sandwich and eat it. Then I walked down the walking street just to see what was there. On my return, I went to a side street and bought a big pancake from a vendor. It was warm, soft, and tasty with vegetables in the dough. After that, I decided that I had eaten enough and would wait for tomorrow to have a better meal.
I returned to the hotel and read for a while. I went to bed at 21:00. Sometime in the night, the phone rang. It was the usual prostitute wanting to know if she should come to my room. That happens all the time in China. I had thought about unplugging my phone before going to bed, but I had forgotten to do so yesterday, and there had been no call.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008--Beijing
Today, I made the trip out to the Great Wall of China. I remember reading about it and seeing photos of it in my geography or history textbooks from elementary school, so it was fun to finally see it myself. There are several places where one can visit the wall. I considered the possibilities and decided on the most popular one because it is also the easiest to reach via publich transport.
After breakfast, I took the metro to the station where I could catch a public bus to take me non-stop to the wall at Bedaling. The metro trip was an experience. It was rush hour. I waited in a long line to get onto the train. People pushed and shoved. When I got in (the second train to arrive after getting in line), I was pushed and shoved until I, along with everyone else, was packed in like a sardine in a tin. It was fascinating. At each stop, people pushed and shoved to get to the door and out, and others pushed and shoved to get inside and fill up every little bit of space that was available. After about 7 stops, it finally clearned out so that everyone could have his own space; but I got off at the 8th stop!
The Great Wall is really as magnificent as it seems to be on TV and in photos. I was lucky that they have a ticket for seniors (over 60). Guess they think we don't climb and, therefore, cause less maintenance. But anyone who knows me knows that I not only climbed; I climbed more than most. Badaling is the most visited portion of the wall. In fact, that part of the wall is the most visited tourist site in the world. When I got to the wall, there were two choices--turn right (as 95% of all visitors did) and go up the wall that direction which didn't seem so steep, or turn left to go up a steeper portion of the wall. I chose to go left. It put me climbing the wall with only a very few other people. In fact, most of the time it was as if I had the wall to myself. It was very steep at times, but there were rails to hold. I climbed to the highest tower. From there, I could see the wall continuing over the mountains far into the distance. Only a very few of us were up there. Unfortunately, there was a local man offering to carve my name into the wall in Chinese characters so my friends would know I had been there; I declined, of course. Wish the government would stop such activities. Anyway, I enjoyed the views, then I started down again. On the way down, I passed more people due to the fact it was later in the morning and more and more buses were arriving. Most of those I encountered were about to give up and turn back. I tried encouraging them to continue by telling them about the views from the top tower, and many did.
While waiting for the return bus, I met two women from the Czech Republic. They are both graduate students. One has been here for 5 months studying computer design. The other is a friend who is visiting for a short time before writing her thesis on international trade between China and the Czech Republic. They were nice women and interesting to get to know. They laughed when I told them that I make my own kolaches.
By the time the bus returned to Beijing, the two women and I decided to go try to see the Olympic Village. It wasn't too far from where our bus would let us off. The line to the village is not open yet, but we could see by the map that there was a metro line that had a stop not too far away. We went there and walked westward. After 20 minutes or so, we were there. We saw the new large stadium and the swimhall that looks as if it is covered in giant bubble wrap. Both are fascinating structures. We could also see some of the other event arenas, but none as spectacular as the stadium and the swimhall. There are many other buildings we could not see because they are hidden behind the ones we did see. It was nice to be there and see them, however. I wish I could see the swimhall at night when the walls look like blue bubbles.
The ladies left me to head to the train station to catch their train back to Shanghai. I went to a supermarket and bought a cola and some water. Then I took the metro here. I ran into a problem, however. They were making loud announcements on the train, and I couldn't tell what they were saying because of it being in Chinese. Then, when we got to the Beijing Railway Station Metro Station (where I needed to get off for the cyber cafe), we pulled through it. It was totally dark, and reminded of what the stations were like during communist times in Berlin when the metro passed the closed stations in the East. I wonder what had happened to cause the station to be dark and closed? Was there a protest that took place? Was there a terrorist threat? Did the construction going on in the train station and on other buildings in the area cut a cable? I probably won't know. But it added a bit more adventure to my trip.
I was so tired that I bought a bottle of water and headed to the hotel after being at the Internet Cafe. I just wanted to go to bed. When I got to the room, however, the phone rang. It was an internet friend I have been communicating with. He's a 27-year-old former athlete who learned English communicating with other competetors at the international events. Now, he is an investment banker with a Swiss firm. He is on vacation right now and wanted to meet me. He arrived an hour or so later, and we visited for a couple of hours. He was gone by 22:00, so I still got to bed and had a nice night of sleep.
Tuesday, June 9, 2008--Beijing
I am still tired from the fact that I had to fly overnight to get here from Cebu. Even though I am dragging today, I forced myself to have a full day of activities in the city.
I am very fortunate with my room. Not only is it a very nice room--wonderful comfortor, good a/c, sparkling glass bathroom, etc., but it is in a perfect location. Right across the street is the Grand Hyatt (which probably costs 6-8 times what I am paying) and the Oriental Plaza Mall (the nicest and largest mall in the city). Just half a block away is a major walking street with shops, sidewalk eateries, etc. And the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are just about a 15-minute walk away.
My breakfast at the hotel is a Chinese one. Almost everyone staying at the hotel is Chinese. It is popular with businessmen, I think. It consisted of a boiled egg, fried sticks of bread (like churros without the cinnamon and sugar), steamed buns with bean paste inside, several choices of pickled vegetables which have a bit of a pepper bite to them, and choices of 3 kinds of porridge. The later were rather tasteless. But it was free with the room, so I ate up and then waited for the evening to eat again.
I headed to the Forbidden City to see it before the tour buses arrived. I was there when it opened at 8:30. It is larger than I expected. And it is also duller than I expected. It is like visiting temples (and very much like the temples in Korea and Taiwan), and I have visited too many of those over the years. But I pushed myself through the huge complex seeing what could be seen. I was happier when I went into the side areas where there seemed to be more character and more of a feel of a place where people would actually live. After 3 hours there, the crowds had built up, so I was ready to leave.
I walked across to Tiananmen Square. It seems smaller than I expected. The square itself is obviously huge, but there are building in the center of it which make it seem smaller than I expected. I thought it would be one, big empty square. There is a huge open space across the street from the Forbidden City, but the buildings in the rest of the square (including the one with Mao's body on display) really took up much of the area. There were many people in the square, but it didn't seem crowded at all. One problem is that there are no shady areas, so people are in the bright sunshine when they are there in the daytime. That is probably why it is popular to go there in the evenings.
From there, I headed for the Temple of Heaven where the emporers prayed. It is quite a distance, but I wanted to see everything along the way. My map showed a major street going south from Tiananmen Square to it, and showed that it had restaurants and other things to see along the way. When I got to the location of the street, however, it was gone. That seems to be the story here in Beijing. Huge parts of town are being bulldozed to rebuild. Many people were looking through holes in the construction wall, so I looked, too. What I saw was totally new construction designed to give the appearance of an idealized (think Disneyland) Chinese neighborhood from the 1930s or so. There is a street car line going down the middle of the street. My guess is that it will be open and functioning as a place to see "Old Beijing" by the time the Olympics arrive in two months.
I had to go to the side and take a major street that is totally new; it does not show on my guidebook map. It's the new traffic routing they constructed when they tore down the old neighborhood. Walking along this street is like walking along many Beijing streets today. It is green with lots of blooming flowers. Behind the greenery is a continuous wall. The city has done this on all their major streets all over the city. What they actually have done is tear down the businesses and houses along every major street going back at least 15-20 m (15-20 yards). It's possible to see the gagged walls of buildings where they were cut away just behind the new walls. They built walls to hide the neighborhoods that remain, and then planted the grass, trees, and flowers to make the streets look pretty. It's true that many of the neighborhoods behind these walls look like slums, but it is just amazing how many neighborhoods have been devastated by redevelopment and by shaving off their outer parts for these walls and gardens!
The Temple of Heaven was nice to see. Since it is one of the major symbols of the city, I wanted to see it. But it was a long way there in the hot sunshine. And it is really a rather simple building in the center of a big park. I actually enjoyed watching the people in the park more than I did seeing the temple itself. They were playing card games, dancing to music, etc. It seems to be a place where locals go to have a relaxed time. Inside the temple complex, a group of young Americans were being obnoxious and helping us live up to the old reputation of The Ugly American. They were sliding down the sides of the steps going to one of the temple buildings, making lots of noise, and in general showing that they had no respect for the place nor interest in it other than what fun they could have at it. They were a band group visiting from a U.S. school. I was so turned off that I didn't even want to pay attention to see what school it was.
Back at the hotel, I couldn't help but fall asleep even though I wanted to stay awake. After 45 minutes of catnapping, I forced myself to get up and go out again. I intended to eat at a snack street, but it wasn't what I really expected when I got there. I did buy a chicken shawarma sandwich and eat it. Then I walked down the walking street just to see what was there. On my return, I went to a side street and bought a big pancake from a vendor. It was warm, soft, and tasty with vegetables in the dough. After that, I decided that I had eaten enough and would wait for tomorrow to have a better meal.
I returned to the hotel and read for a while. I went to bed at 21:00. Sometime in the night, the phone rang. It was the usual prostitute wanting to know if she should come to my room. That happens all the time in China. I had thought about unplugging my phone before going to bed, but I had forgotten to do so yesterday, and there had been no call.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008--Beijing
Today, I made the trip out to the Great Wall of China. I remember reading about it and seeing photos of it in my geography or history textbooks from elementary school, so it was fun to finally see it myself. There are several places where one can visit the wall. I considered the possibilities and decided on the most popular one because it is also the easiest to reach via publich transport.
After breakfast, I took the metro to the station where I could catch a public bus to take me non-stop to the wall at Bedaling. The metro trip was an experience. It was rush hour. I waited in a long line to get onto the train. People pushed and shoved. When I got in (the second train to arrive after getting in line), I was pushed and shoved until I, along with everyone else, was packed in like a sardine in a tin. It was fascinating. At each stop, people pushed and shoved to get to the door and out, and others pushed and shoved to get inside and fill up every little bit of space that was available. After about 7 stops, it finally clearned out so that everyone could have his own space; but I got off at the 8th stop!
The Great Wall is really as magnificent as it seems to be on TV and in photos. I was lucky that they have a ticket for seniors (over 60). Guess they think we don't climb and, therefore, cause less maintenance. But anyone who knows me knows that I not only climbed; I climbed more than most. Badaling is the most visited portion of the wall. In fact, that part of the wall is the most visited tourist site in the world. When I got to the wall, there were two choices--turn right (as 95% of all visitors did) and go up the wall that direction which didn't seem so steep, or turn left to go up a steeper portion of the wall. I chose to go left. It put me climbing the wall with only a very few other people. In fact, most of the time it was as if I had the wall to myself. It was very steep at times, but there were rails to hold. I climbed to the highest tower. From there, I could see the wall continuing over the mountains far into the distance. Only a very few of us were up there. Unfortunately, there was a local man offering to carve my name into the wall in Chinese characters so my friends would know I had been there; I declined, of course. Wish the government would stop such activities. Anyway, I enjoyed the views, then I started down again. On the way down, I passed more people due to the fact it was later in the morning and more and more buses were arriving. Most of those I encountered were about to give up and turn back. I tried encouraging them to continue by telling them about the views from the top tower, and many did.
While waiting for the return bus, I met two women from the Czech Republic. They are both graduate students. One has been here for 5 months studying computer design. The other is a friend who is visiting for a short time before writing her thesis on international trade between China and the Czech Republic. They were nice women and interesting to get to know. They laughed when I told them that I make my own kolaches.
By the time the bus returned to Beijing, the two women and I decided to go try to see the Olympic Village. It wasn't too far from where our bus would let us off. The line to the village is not open yet, but we could see by the map that there was a metro line that had a stop not too far away. We went there and walked westward. After 20 minutes or so, we were there. We saw the new large stadium and the swimhall that looks as if it is covered in giant bubble wrap. Both are fascinating structures. We could also see some of the other event arenas, but none as spectacular as the stadium and the swimhall. There are many other buildings we could not see because they are hidden behind the ones we did see. It was nice to be there and see them, however. I wish I could see the swimhall at night when the walls look like blue bubbles.
The ladies left me to head to the train station to catch their train back to Shanghai. I went to a supermarket and bought a cola and some water. Then I took the metro here. I ran into a problem, however. They were making loud announcements on the train, and I couldn't tell what they were saying because of it being in Chinese. Then, when we got to the Beijing Railway Station Metro Station (where I needed to get off for the cyber cafe), we pulled through it. It was totally dark, and reminded of what the stations were like during communist times in Berlin when the metro passed the closed stations in the East. I wonder what had happened to cause the station to be dark and closed? Was there a protest that took place? Was there a terrorist threat? Did the construction going on in the train station and on other buildings in the area cut a cable? I probably won't know. But it added a bit more adventure to my trip.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
